3 hours after Annie's Escape
Levi couldn't help but stare at the pink-haired soldier as she explained to Nile Dok who she was for the third time.
"I'm not Sakura," she said in a very patient tone. If this were the real Sakura, she would barely control her Eren Rage. "I am a clone of Sakura sent to warn you of the titan sighting. She's somewhere else."
"Which has been confirmed by Thomas," Erwin added, his face just as patient as the clone's. "Now, Nile, we don't have time to lose so would you please just sign off on us taking the clone?"
They were still in the room where Sebastian and Mikasa had planned to save Sakura from the political cliff she had been thrown off from. The only difference was that now Erwin and Nile had replaced their presence, with Sebastian having escaped rather quickly before a military official saw him bargaining for a traitor's life and Mikasa sent away to prepare herself and her friends for their upcoming journey, but not before summoning both Erwin and Nile.
Erwin had come first and had asked the clone to explain herself fully, but just before she could delve into the finer details, Nile had shown up, hell bent in sending the clone to jail.
"I can't allow you to leave with a soldier we claimed to be a traitor not even an hour ago," Nile retorted, annoyed. "Why do you even want her so badly?"
"Just because I'm a clone doesn't mean I can't help. I possess all of my creator's abilities, and will help out as long as my chakra allows me. That's what Sakura would've wanted."
"Sakura Ackerman is labeled a traitor right now," Nile told the clone. Levi had to admit it was weird talking about Sakura like that when her mirror image was right in front of them, but he could see himself getting used to it. "We don't believe your intentions, either. For all we know, you could just be here for recon."
"All right, Commander Dok," Levi began sarcastically, then gave him a hard look, "if you're not going to allow us to take her, then why don't you offer yourself and some of your soldiers? It won't really match up the entirety of this clone's worth, but it'll do nicely."
"Levi," Erwin warned.
He glared at his Commander. "I understand that it's in our best interests to not offend him, but titans have been sighted inside Wall Rose. For all we know we may not come back to civilization." He turned towards Nile again, his face a bit smoother. "So, like I said, either put in your men or let us take her."
It didn't take Nile very long. He looked at Clone Sakura and growled, "Fine." He whipped his head at Erwin and pointed a finger towards her. "But if she does anything don't come crying back to Wall Sina. This also does not revoke her traitor status." He tramped towards the door, but stopped when he was next to Erwin. "I sincerely hope you haven't doomed humanity any more with this decision," he whispered before leaving the room.
As soon as the door closed, Clone Sakura said, "So Sakura is labeled a traitor?"
"Yes," Erwin replied without any remorse. "Your creator didn't leave us much of a choice. It was either accepting those terms or being defunded. Now, you were in the process of explaining your existence?"
"Sakura created me when she split up her chakra into two. I possess all of her abilities and knowledge, and when I'm dismissed I give her back all of the things I learned, though I don't think she's aware of this ability of the Shadow Clone Technique."
"If you're aware of it then how isn't she aware?" Levi asked.
"Because all clones know their purpose, even if their creator doesn't. I'll disappear once the chakra that powers me goes out or if I'm wounded heavily. Whatever chakra I have left and all the intelligence I gathered goes back to her."
"Is that the only way you can go back to her?"
Sakura shook her head at the blond commander. "I can be dismissed. If you want me to relay any information to Sakura, just ask me to dismiss myself and I will."
"You'll take orders from Erwin?"
"And you, too. Sakura may not know it, but she's still is a Survey Corps soldiers, and she still takes orders from the Squad Leaders. When are we leaving, Commander?"
Erwin's blue eyes hardened and he looked out the door. "As soon as we get. We're getting everyone ready right now. The goal is to leave within the hour. I just hoped everyone had some time to rest, or else we'll be at a disadvantage." Erwin turned his gaze at Levi's leg. "It's a shame that you're still wounded."
"I can heal him," Clone Sakura said. "It shouldn't take long, and I don't think I'll use enough chakra to disappear."
"What do you need?" Levi asked before Erwin could protest. It had been torture not being able to fight in Stohess and equally as embarrassing to be carried down the Wall by Mikasa. Now that there were titans inside Wall Rose, he could tip the scale for at least a little bit, even if it's to buy everyone some time.
"A bed and a chair."
"Let's go."
Almost at the door, almost at the door.
"Levi."
He inwardly groaned and begrudgingly turned away from his sweet escape. "What?"
"Is that wise?"
"Erwin, I just told Nile we had the odds against us and we needed every person we could. Now I have an opportunity to join that fight and I'll take it."
Clone Sakura, sensing that the apprehension was about where her loyalties lied, declared calmly, "Commander Erwin, I know now isn't the best time for me to claim things, but he's my Captain, and it's my duty to not let harm come upon him. And if I can do anything to reverse any harm, I will."
Both Levi and Erwin raised their eyebrows at that comment. The Sakura they had known would never say anything like what the Clone had just easily declared. Either she was an excellent liar or the Clone had perfect loyalty instilled in her. "I like you better than your creator," Levi mentioned.
Clone Sakura smiled at him. "I haven't said anything that my creator wouldn't agree with."
Erwin sighed, and Levi could see him resisting the urge to kick him. "Fine, but make it quick. You're leaving soon, remember."
Levi didn't need any further encouragement. He bolted out the room as fast as his limp could take him and headed to the hospital wing. The military building in Stohess took care of all military matters, including caring for the wounded and the sick. It was around here that Eren was recovering from his fight with Annie, and it was in this wing that he would finally be able to walk normally.
He opened the first room he saw and thanked whatever gods existed that it was empty. Clone Sakura closed the door behind her, turned the lamplight on, and moved the one chair in the room next to the bed.
"Please remove your boots and roll up your pants in the wounded leg," she ordered, but it didn't come off as commanding as all of Sakura's orders did.
Levi did as told and also took off his 3DMG, placing it gently on the floor. He got on the bed and as soon as he laid down, Clone Sakura got to work over the wounded area, a cool green light appearing around her hands.
Whatever she was doing felt great. His right ankle felt warm but he could almost feel the pain lessening by the second. His awe at her abilities only increased, and so did his anger at Sakura. She had always possessed this wonderful power and she had hid it from them? Had hid it from him? He knew why she had done it, but it didn't make him hurt any less.
"The stunt you pulled on top of Wall Sina worsened it," Clone Sakura commented. "That was unwise, Captain."
Levi observed the pink-haired soldier working diligently on his ankle. Her features were exactly the same as his second-in-command, but there was something distinctly off. If he were a guessing man, he'd had to guess it had to do with her eyes. Her green eyes were devoid of fire.
He liked fire.
"If you were Ackerman, you'd be berating me at this moment. Yet here you are, healing me without any qualms or complaints."
"I'm created to follow orders. Clones don't have independence."
"So that's all you're useful for?" Levi asked, some of his anger at Sakura seeping into his voice.
Clone Sakura sighed sadly. "I understand that you're angry, Captain, but I'm not the person you can have this conversation with. I can't give you the same answers she would give you."
"But you can relay my disappointment, yes?"
"I'll make sure it's very clear, Captain."
"You can try to be feistier. You don't have to agree with everything I say."
"Not designed to be combative against allies, Captain."
Levi had to hold in his snarl of frustration. He thought he was going to get a chance to get out all of his anger quicker than he thought, but there was no way he could yell at the woman currently healing his ankle without feeling like an absolute piece of shit. The person he was angry with wasn't her, even if every definition said she was a clone of the origin of all of his anger.
He'd have to let his anger simmer and harden until he crossed paths with Sakura once again.
"I do have a question, Captain."
Finally! Some hope of personality starting to shine through!
After the Clone did not venture any further, Levi realized she was asking for his permission to ask a question. Oh dear, this was definitely not his second-in-command. "Well, what is it?"
"Why did you trust me?"
"Trust you? I don't trust you."
"Yet I'm healing your leg."
"You said it yourself: you would never harm me."
"That could've been a lie."
"I'm good at detecting lies."
"Not my creator's. She lied to you for a long time."
Levi narrowed his eyes, annoyed at the reminder of her betrayal. "You're not really building a case for yourself, Clone."
"Which is why I'm curious as to why you didn't dismiss or attack me immediately. Commander Dok is right: I am a liability. At least until my creator can prove her innocence in a trial, she is branded a traitor. So why do you trust me?"
"Because your creator is a shitty, selfish person, but I don't think she's a traitor. Which doesn't make you an enemy."
Clone Sakura smiled rather ironically and the green glow disappeared from her hands. "It does seem it's that way, yes. Anyway, I've finished healing your ankle. You had a minor fracture, but I carefully reconstructed the bone."
Levi experimentally twisted her ankle, surprised to find that his pain was completely gone and his previous mobility was restored. Those healing powers of hers were miraculous, to say the least. Just what was her limit?
"Bone injuries are a bit different than flesh injuries since they require more follow up care. I strongly recommend that you abstain from fighting because" ––Clone Sakura shot him a stern look very reminiscent of his second-in-command when he was about to interrupt her–– "the wound is still fragile. I sped up the process, but your body has to finish healing. If you were to break it again, I wouldn't be able to heal it since I've used the majority of my chakra here. You can, however, walk and run normally, though I recommend resting as much as you can."
Levi sat back up and put his boots on, content that the simple action no longer bothered him like before. Even if the clone had informed him that his wound hadn't finished healing, he felt much more comfortable. He experimented walking around the empty hardwood floor room and was even more delighted to realize that his limp was gone.
Clone Sakura got up from her chair and stretched her arms. "I take it you like it," she said without turning to look at him.
"This power of yours is a game-changer. Just how many people can Ackerman save?"
"Sakura."
"Excuse me?"
"Her name is Sakura." The clone turned to look at him; her green eyes were serious.
"I know that."
"Then use it."
Levi furrowed his brow, unable to keep the confusion out of his eyes. "I don't understand why that's important."
"It creates distance between superior and subordinate. That's what the Training Corps did and said to us. You never did that with the squad except for Sakura."
"You do remember she has a severe problem with authority, yes?" At least that was the reason he told almost everyone who asked.
Clone Sakura nodded. "She does, but that doesn't matter anymore. Not since they died. The number of people she cares about dwindles every year, and you're one of the only constants left. I think my creator would be happy to know you see her as a comrade."
"It would have been easier if she hadn't lied to me for two years," Levi muttered under his breath. "Anyway, why are you telling me all of this? Did she send you to also confess all of her feelings to everyone?"
He had hoped to embarrass Clone Sakura enough that she purposely ended the conversation, but her features were as smooth as always, neither caught off guard nor daunted about his comment. "No, I'm just using my time to improve my creator's relationships with as many people as I can. She's taciturn when it comes to her emotions, and since I'll cease to exist in a few hours, days at the most, I won't have to take responsibilities for my actions."
Like creator like creation.
"All right all right, fine, I'll call her Sakura. But the comrade part she has to earn by not being so shitty anymore."
"Thank you."
Levi looked out the single window in the room, observing the destroyed city with detachment. Soon every human city would look like this, or worse. If they had found a way to breach Wall Rose, nothing would stop them from doing the same with Wall Sina. He was unsure if Erwin or Zackly had formulated plans for fixing the breach or controlling the fallout.
Perhaps it would've been easier to die years ago.
He turned away from the window and looked at the pink-haired soldier. Her back was straight and her face was giving him her full attention. "Clone, I'm assigning you to my team for the rest of the night so you can give me follow-up care. Go prepare yourself if you need to and meet us at the gate promptly at midnight."
"As you wish, Captain Levi."
She saluted and left the room without a word. A part of him had hoped she gathered more information about her post, haggled with him about her responsibilities, complained a bit about how little time he gave her to get ready, but no, she accepted his word as law.
She was the perfect picture of the obedient soldier he always wanted Sakura to be, but he only found himself hating it more every second he spent with her.
Levi spent the next thirty minutes planning their trip. His body was on autopilot, but his mind was still whirling to catch up with all of the events that had transpired in just six hours. It's not an exaggeration to say his whole life had been flipped upside down, and he still wasn't sure how he was taking it. He still trusted Sakura, that much was true, though whatever good partnership they had before had been destroyed and had to be rebuilt. Annie disappearing and having similar powers to Sakura's was extremely concerning, since now he wasn't sure how, evenly matched they were. It turned out there were titans inside the wall, and nobody had any idea how they'd gotten there.
He didn't even want to think about the breach in Wall Rose. Again, he was hoping either Erwin or Hange came up with something.
"Levi!"
Speak of the devil and she shall appear.
He turned away from the cart he had finished preparing and regarded Hange with serious eyes. Trailing behind her was a Wall Priest, those crazy ones that always found a way to interfere with military matters. His face was pale and he had prominent wrinkles and frail features, but his light brown eyes were calm.
"I wanted to introduce one of our traveling companions to you. Levi, this is Pastor Nick; Pastor Nick, this is Captain Levi."
They only stared at each other, their faces stony.
Hange barked a short laugh and clapped them both in the back. "I'm glad you're getting along so far! Levi, I was telling Pastor Nick I hoped he would be more open with you about the origins of the Wall."
"You mean you still haven't found out about that titan inside the wall?" Meanwhile Erwin and he were getting grilled by the Emergency Board, Hange had spent the majority of the afternoon trying to get information out of a Pastor. To find out she had failed was surprising, considering how tenacious she was.
Hange clapped Pastor Nick again, though much more forcefully. Nick remained quiet. "Nope, our friend here is very, very stubborn. Hasn't really said much besides asking us to cover the titan and ordering us to be secretive about the matter."
Levi resisted the urge to growl. Too many things piling on top of his plate, too little time to take care of them. Hange was right to seek him out though; there weren't many who could resist Levi's own brand of information-gathering, though he was unsure if he was allowed to use more violent methods on the priest. Plus keeping tabs on the priest would occupy his time and would not interfere with his healing bone, something Clone Sakura would definitely approve of.
Before any of them could add anything to the conversation, the kids from Shiganshina and the pink-haired soldier reported for duty. The three rookies were bright-eyed and jittery, even Eren, who was suffering from the after-effects of the titan transformation. The clone looked a bit worse for wear, no doubt exhausted from healing him. According to the clone, whenever her fuel, her chakra, runs outs, she'll disappear forever. Now that he thought about it, he felt guilty he had hastened her "death," but the clone had seemed very content in healing him, so the least he could do was follow her recommendation to stay out of the fight for a little bit longer.
The blond boy, Armin, saluted him first. The other three followed with varying degrees of enthusiasm. "We're reporting for duty, Captain Levi."
Levi looked around and noticed most Survey Corps members were ready to depart. His mission was to lead a small team get to the Hermiha district to assess the situation and plan accordingly. His provisional squad consisting of Eren, Mikasa, and Armin, at least officially, to help deal with the problem, meanwhile the other squad members strictly belonged to Hange.
"Good, you're here on time. Get onboard; we're leaving."
Mikasa helped Eren get on board and together they sat on the left bench, with Armin following shortly after leaving the adults to sit on the right one.
Levi got on first with Clone Sakura's aid, followed by Nick, bringing Hange to the leftmost spot. As soon as Hange finished getting on, she ordered their small squad to start on their way to the Hermiha District to whatever waited for them there.
The first half an hour was spend in silence. Nick refused to make eye contact with either of them, whether it was because he was intimidated or detached, Levi didn't know. Clone Sakura was having trouble staying awake, with her head lolling back and forth with the movement of the cart. It wouldn't be long before she fell asleep.
Eren seemed to be in a similar situation, no doubt the after effects of his titan transformation. Mikasa was looking over both Eren and Clone Sakura, even though he knew she was aware she was simply a clone. Her personality, like her older adopted sister's, gravitated towards overprotection. Whether Sakura had instilled that on Mikasa or simply nurtured it, Levi didn't know, but it was this overbearingness that almost got Mikasa killed.
He'd be damned if he didn't admit he admired that sense of duty. Not many had the strength to protect those they loved, and the ones they did were just obsessed with getting more power.
The blond boy, Armin, was also silent, but Levi could see that he was lost in thought. Levi hadn't heard much about Armin except from what Erwin briefed him earlier before Nile came to interrupt their discussion with Clone Sakura. He was not as physically endowed as Mikasa and Eren, but what he lacked in brawn he made up in brain.
"What can we do now?" the blond boy finally said in a despondent voice. "If Wall Rose has actually been breached, it won't matter if we deliver him to the front lines... Everything we know... And why do we have a Wall Priest with us?"
Hange cheerily explained what Nick's purpose was, as well as his annoying reticence about the origins of the titans inside the walls. Once she revealed that particular tidbit, Eren woke up from his stupor and grabbed the Wall Priest by his collar, his eyes showing a more subdued version of Eren Rage, as he had dubbed it.
"What the hell!" he yelled at the Wall Priest.
Levi noticed from the corner of his eye that Clone Sakura snapped awake, momentarily confused of her surroundings. Just then Eren grunted in pain and both Mikasa and Clone Sakura lowered him gently back to the chair. She placed a hand against Eren's forehead and it glowed green, visibly alleviating the young soldier's pain, then sat down next to Levi.
She looked even more tired.
"What in the world?" Nick finally mumbled.
Hange laughed harshly. "You get to keep your secrets, then so will we," she announced. "But Eren, I wouldn't jump straight to violence. Pastor Nick wants to see the conditions people are living in right now to see if it's worth it to spill his secret."
"I still don't get it," Eren said much more calmly. "What could be worth so much as to not prevent the total extinction of humanity?"
"I won't be the first one to jump to his defense, but Pastor Nick seems more upstanding than your average citizen. I... I think he believes there's a cause more important than preventing humanity's downfall."
The three teenagers' eyes widened at that, then their foreheads burrowed. They were probably thinking the same question as he was: what could possibly be more important than humanity's survival?
Levi motioned at the gas tanks currently resting in the front of the cart. "I may be out of commission for a little longer, but I still have the tools to make people talk. And if all else fails and he proves to be a liability, I'm still strong enough to make people disappear."
His open threat did not do much to affect Nick's facial expression, but Levi could see the tension in his body. He could also see Hange playing with what looked like a rock.
"I didn't know you were weird enough to also play with rocks, Hange," he mentioned.
Hange whipped her head at him and smiled widely. "This isn't a rock! I secretly salvaged it after the first failed captured in the 57th Expedition from the Female's Titan crystallized skin."
"It hasn't disappeared?" Armin asked excitedly.
Her smile became an open grin at the enthusiasm of the blond rookie. "No! No evaporating, no disappearing, no nothing! Incredible! I had no idea what to do with it besides study its composition until a few hours ago when the titans were revealed inside the walls. Turns out, it's almost a perfect match! Meaning that the titans inside the walls probably crystallized to become its supporting pillars."
"Does that mean that–– Mph!" Armin began enthusiastically only to be shut up by Hange's hand on top of his mouth.
"Nuh uh! Allow me the honor, Armin! We can't have a repeat of Trost, right? There's no boulder big enough to close the breach in Wall Maria. But, if Eren could use his titan-hardening ability, would we be able to close the breach?"
"Plug the hole... with my body?" Eren whispered.
Hange clenched her hand harder against the rock. "It's something I've been mulling over, wondering if it's a possibility."
Hange's idea was grand, but it depended on a lot of variables. First, did Eren even have the power to harden his body? So far, they had only seen that power in the Female Titan. Second, would his body be big enough to close the breach? Levi had forgotten the size of the wall, but it had to be big enough to let all of those fifteen meter tall titans in. Third, how where they going to get there without huge casualties?
"I think it's worth a shot," Armin said carefully. "The repeatability of the procedure is also alluring, since Eren would be able to harden his body multiple times. The earlier plan to conquer Wall Maria was to take raw materials to the wall, which requires a lot of staff to build it and solders' lives to establish supply points along the way. This approach could take at least twenty years.
If the need for carts is eliminated, we could make a beeline for Shinganshina. With Eren, twenty years becomes a day."
Levi couldn't help but think of the last six years he had spent in the Survey Corps, five of those dedicated to the supply chain Armin was talking about. So many deaths, so much pain, so much hard work, all to gain a couple hundred meters of ground to get closer to their destination. And now all of that work would just be undone by one teenage boy who could plug the wall with one titan body.
Hange placed her fingers against her mouth, pensive. "With a small enough group, we could get there in no time."
"How about we do it at night?"
"At night?" Hange asked.
"Titans can't move at night! Sure, torchlight at night doesn't illuminate as much as daylight, but even with slowed speeds a small group can make it to Wall Maria before dawn."
She looked at the crystallized titan skin in her hand, a worried look on her face. "We're desperate, but there still seems to be hope."
"Yes, well, this all rests on the gamble that Eren can harden his skin to plug the wall." Armin turned to look at the black-haired boy with questioning eyes, who seemed as if he wanted to be invisible at this moment.
Hange laughed lightly. "Even if we asked, I don't think we would receive an answer." She sobered up slightly and pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose. "But do you think you can do it?"
Eren huffed shakily. "Y-Yeah."
Before Levi could remind him that he didn't have much of a choice, Clone Sakura quipped, "I'm sure you will be able to. So far, everything you've done has been based on instinct, right? So, maybe this will also be with the help of your instinct."
The boy looked visibly calmer after her words of encouragement. Even if she wasn't the original Sakura, she had some of her qualities that extended past physical appearance.
"Yeah you're––"
The pink-haired soldier gasped in what appeared to be pain. Levi looked around to see if there were any wounds but Clone Sakura looked perfectly healthy. Was she disappearing?
"Sakura!" Mikasa yelled out. "What's wrong?"
Clone Sakura looked down at her hands in worry. "Nothing is wrong with me, but something's wrong with Sakura. I can feel when she's in pain, and right now she is."
"Do you know what kind of pain?" Levi asked, trying to keep the panic from his voice. Had Sakura engaged with Annie? Was she losing the fight?
She shook her head. "It's internal... I don't know how to describe it. It seems to have subsided."
"Is she alive?" Hange asked.
"If she dies, I'll disappear immediately. She's fine now, it's no use to worry."
Even if Clone Sakura tried her best to assuage their worries, nobody in the cart was buying it. Something was wrong, and they were heading in that direction right now.
Sakura shivered against the bitter cold as they got closer to the heart of the Land of Spring. When Itachi had mentioned going on a small trip, she never considered he would take her closer and closer to the Land of Spring, which was the Land of Snow at this time. Hence the current storm they were currently traveling in.
She sneezed violently, attracting the attention of the black-haired Uchiha. "I believe we can afford a little break," he mentioned, his voice louder than usual to beat the howling wind.
Sakura sniffled and glared at him. "I've been saying that for the last hour!"
Itachi ignored her comment and started looking around the place, hoping to find a refuge. Unfortunately visibility wasn't high, forcing them to walk further. By now Sakura lost all feeling in her face, and she was secretly grateful Itachi had recommended to dress warmly or else she would be freezing in the snow due to hypothermia.
After twenty more minutes of silently trudging through the snow, they found a stone cave a bit further down the path. Itachi body-flickered close to it, and Sakura followed hot at his heels, eager to get some shelter from the bitter winds.
Sakura got both of their sleeping bags from the seal scroll and laid them on the ground meanwhile Itachi made a fire out with wood he had stored on a separate seal. He had been a bit more well-prepared for the winter than Sakura was.
They sat on the hard, cold ground and got some ramen from the sealing scroll to heat over the fire with a pan she brought. Sakura placed her hands close to the fire, eager for them to gain some heat. Ninja seldom wore warming gloves since they slowed down their seal-making speed. Especially for Itachi and Sakura who specialized in ninjutsu, every second counted in the fight. Sakura had more taijutsu experience than her black-haired companion, but she noticed her punches didn't channel as much chakra while wearing non-ninja gloves.
This made traveling in the cold more annoying, since their hands had to be free. She could wear gloves like Kakashi did, but those didn't really help much in the cold.
"So, what can you tell me about the wolves?" Sakura asked after she got a cup of ramen for Itachi and then herself. Itachi wasn't much of a talker. Considering his rather disturbed past, Sakura was surprised he was even willing to indulge Konoha citizens in conversation. If she had been forced by her village to kill of her family, she would've deflected and hated said village forever. But here he was, training her out of a sense of misplaced guilt.
She was still a bit unnerved in being around his presence. Every ninja has a couple of screws loose, but Itachi probably has little screws left to begin with.
Itachi raised his eyes from the burning fire to meet her gaze and took the bowl. He seemed amused, if Sakura could even say Itachi could be amused. "Didn't you ask around the village?"
"I did, but not many people knew about them. Considering having a summoning contract is hard and not inheritable by blood, I can understand that. It's hard to keep around, and ninja would rather focus on improving their skills than hunting the world for a summoning contract."
The only clan in Konoha that could claim to have a "family summon" was the Sarutobi family, and even then the monkeys were very picky about which Sarutobi could summon them. The Sandaime had been akin to a god, so the monkeys lent their service happily. Asuma, though, hadn't been so lucky in gaining their respect. Right now, no ninja had access to summon monkeys, which has caused some unrest in the Sarutobi clan.
"Correct," he replied, pleased with her deduction. He delicately slurped on his noodles, his clan royalty status showing in making ramen seem a food for nobles. "And, on most days, I would agree. But you know why summons are important, especially when you're outnumbered. But to answer your question, the wolves are an elusive bunch, so I would've been surprised if someone in Konoha knew. Though they're not affiliated with one particular village, they will usually meet candidates in the Land of Snow or in the Land of Water. They're particularly coveted in the Land of Water for being an Ice Release summon."
"Ice Release?" she asked after gulping the last of her food. She set her bowl down, wanting to free her hands.
"The cursed Yuki clan may have fallen out of the graces of the Land of Water civilians, but the Hidden Mist greatly appreciates that summon, at least until they can find more Yuki clan members to recruit."
"How am I supposed to compete with Kiri's prized summon? Would the wolves even consider a Konoha ninja?"
"They're not affiliated with villages, only talent and a certain personality. And you are the Godaime's apprentice and a formidable ninjutsu user. Don't sell yourself short, Sakura."
"Still, it sounds as if I'm going to be rejected outright. I'm not even sixteen. I don't have an extensive resume of kills or achievements." What had started out as a conversation to kill time was now killing her nerves. There's no way she could compete for a contract an entire village vied over.
To make things worse, Itachi was overly quiet. He finished eating his food and set his bowl on top of Sakura's, carefully avoiding eye contact.
"You agree with me?"
"No, not really," he replied nonchalantly.
Sakura's suspicion rose. "How did you even get them interested in me?" she wondered out loud. "I had Tsunade-shishou's recommendation to get the slug contract, but you haven't even signed with the wolves. So how did you get them interested in someone who's just known for whom her master is?"
"You wouldn't be very happy with me if I told you."
"I'm not happy with you right now so it won't make a difference," she replied sharply.
He actually smiled! The nerve of that man! "You will truly be terrible when you grow up."
"Itachi," she growled, not even bothering with honorifics.
He raised his hands in a placating manner, then lowered them slowly. "I told them of your origins."
"You told them what?"
"Your family origins."
"That was supposed to be a secret between my family and the village," she said tightly, trying to control the overwhelming feeling of betrayal rising in her heart. "We had an agreement!"
"And Konoha respects that. Tsunade-sama respected that agreement as a Hokage, but as your shishou, she expressed interest in having you learn Ice Release from the wolves. So when the negotiation with the first wolf failed for them to meet you, the second meeting was much more optimistic. They will still test your talent, of course, and there exists the likely chance that your bloodline isn't pure enough for this kekkei genkai, but if the wolves are willing to try so will I."
Sakura still felt incredibly hurt and angry, at both Itachi and her shishou, but her emotions had to wait. She needed to find out more information about this breach of intelligence and do some damage control. "Who told you this?"
"I didn't snoop around your family origins, if that's what you're implying. Suguru told me, willingly, actually."
"Suguru... told you?" Her brother, her uptight, gifted brother, had freely given information that could've put her family in danger? Why would he ever do that? He was an asshole, but he would never do something like that.
"During our ANBU years, Suguru and I were in the same team. We had siblings of around the same age, both lauded as geniuses, same temperament and interests, so it was a matter of time before we became friends. He once confided in me his disappointment that his primary affinity wasn't also water so he could use his birthright, and the rest is history."
"So all this time while you were a missing-nin–"
"He hunted me quite relentlessly for all these years, no doubt to silence me." Well that explains why Suguru almost never came around again. First ANBU, next hunting an S-Class missing-nin? "I never told anyone, of course; my allegiance always lied with Konoha. Even if I had wanted to, nobody in Akatsuki is interested in obtaining kekkei genkai."
Sakura had never really put much emphasis in her family's origins. They had told her once she had graduated from the Academy why her extended family wasn't around like most families. Her father, Kizashi, came from the Land of Snow to escape the regime that had been installed during the Third Shinobi War. Her mother, Mebuki, came from the Land of Water and had deflected closer to the end of the war. Both had ties to the Yuki clan, and apparently her grandmother from her mother's side and a cousin from her dad's side had been prominent Ice Release users, but they themselves did not inherit the bloodline.
They had made a deal with Konoha to hide those Yuki ties in exchange for pledging their allegiance to the new village. Paranoia was healthy in the shinobi world, and they retired from the forces to lead civilian lives. They confessed being relieved that Suguru wouldn't be able to learn Ice Release because he didn't have water affinity, and though they were worried their daughter might've inherited the kekkei genkai, nobody in Konoha would be able to teach her.
In the end, knowing her family origins had always been more for heritage than actual ninja-related reasons. She wasn't the daughter of the Yondaime and one of the last Uzumaki in the planet. She wasn't a member of one of the most feared clans in the world. She was just Haruno Sakura. Her parents' native homelands did make her name interesting, though.
Meeting Haku had been interesting. She had been awed at the jutsu he was able to perform, and had been saddened to find out he had been killed. But being recognized could've been deadly for her parents, especially since Haku could've actually done something about them, so she didn't mention absolutely anything.
But now things had changed. If the wolves expressed interest in her, she would not only gain another contract, but she would also learn Ice Release from them, if it was possible. She had been learning Water Release and Wind Release from both Itachi and Suguru, respectively, so she had some rather powerful jutsu under her belt. The rest was in her genetics.
"You seem less mad than what I expected."
"Finding out you and my brother were friends was shocking."
"Were... Yes, that's a good word to describe it. We haven't really talked yet."
"Did taking me as an apprentice have anything to do with rekindling that friendship?"
Itachi frowned slightly. "I would be lying if I said that hadn't crossed my mind, but I also genuinely felt guilty about Sasuke."
"Suguru is indebted towards you. We all are, actually. My brother is too stubborn to seek you out, but if you do he'll have nowhere to run. And if he tries just tell him that I'll kick his ass with exploding ice spears, that'll stop him."
He chuckled lowly. "I see you're already adding Ice Release to your arsenal. Are you hopeful?"
Sakura shifted and opted to look at the fireplace. "I know my parents left their home countries to escape persecution and I'm just about to embrace the very reason why they were persecuted, but I'm excited. This is something unique to me. In Team 7, it was aways the jinchuuriki, the Uchiha, and the girl with pink hair. In fights it was always Rasengan, Chidori, or Shanaro, which was a battlecry I used when I was younger. I know I'm training to be a medic, but we're not taught anything flashy and most medics are there because they have good chakra control, not because they have some special or clan jutsu..." She looked up after trailing off and blushed. "I must sound horrible and selfish and––"
Itachi raised a single hand. "Please, Sakura, you're talking to a man who killed his family." Sakura flinched and averted his gaze. "You're not horrible or selfish for wanting to be powerful. They're human emotions. Just don't forget why you're training to get this power."
She looked back at him, her green eyes determined. "Sasuke."
"Konoha," Itachi amended lightly, though he seemed grateful his brother was such a high priority for her. "Well, we should probably go to sleep. You'll be meeting the wolves tomorrow."
"Where are we meeting them?"
"I'll show you tomorrow. How about I take the first watch?"
Sakura nodded, grateful. Being so close to the source of heat had reminded her how tired she was. After she cleaned the dishes, she bid Itachi a good night and sank deep into her sleeping bag, the warmth enveloping her like a cocoon and sleep coming to seal the delicious deal.
In her mind it felt like five minutes when something wet touched her forehead. She scrunched up her nose and moaned in protest when something licked her.
Something licked her.
She shot up, almost tripping on her sleeping bag, and pointed a sharp kunai at a rather weird-looking large snow white wolf. She looked around for Itachi, but was worried when she couldn't feel his chakra presence.
"He went back," the wolf explained in a deep voice. There was something off about his appearance, but at the same time it was rather similar. "Before you wonder, no, he didn't betray you. This was just a part of our terms."
"You're here because of the summoning contract."
The weird-looking wolf sat down, revealing a rather muscular torso. Though its hind legs's paws were normal for a quadruped, its front legs' paws had opposable thumbs reminiscent of Kurama. or at least what she had seen of Kurama. "I'm here to––"
"Are you related to the kitsune?" she blurted out, then clamped her mouth shut.
The wolf's icy blue eyes turned even icier. "Don't mention those wily fire freaks around our presence." They did look similar, though! She just had to ask. That explains why they were capable of using Ice Release. Animals without opposable thumbs could not perform ninjutsu. "Anyway, I'm here to take you to our home, Kamiki Woods. We will judge your worthiness there."
"How are we getting there?" She knew that she couldn't be reverse summoned there because she didn't have a contract with them. When she had gone to the Shikkotsu Forest, Tsunade had taken her there.
The wolf extended his right front paw (hand?). "I'll take you there, Haruno Sakura. Ah, yes, I'm called Baku, the Seventh One."
"Seventh One?"
Baku sighed and gestured at his right paw. "We will explain pack dynamics if you're inducted to the pack. Now, take my paw."
Sakura did, trying to mask her apprehension and succeeding rather admirably. The feeling of being transported could only be described as weird. She wasn't moving at high speeds like she did in her body-flicker. Instead she felt as she was being compressed then expanded, but not painfully.
Once the feeling was over she realized she was standing on soft grass. There were some scattered trees here and there, but for the most part Kamiki Woods was devoid of trees. The shrubs were rather small and the ground was scattered with snow, but the giant snow-capped mountains in the distance were awe-inspiring and beautiful. She was surprised anything could grow in this bitter cold.
"Welcome to Kamiki Woods," Baku said with pride. We'll take you to meet our leader as soon as the second applicant comes."
"Second applicant?"
"We keep these matters confidential, but now that you're here in Kamiki Woods, I'm allowed to tell you. We don't test potential summoners individually. Our summoning contract places emphasis on pack structure, and that requires cooperation amongst members. In a pack, you either fail or succeed together, so for our applicants, you either fail or succeed together."
"What if it's an enemy ninja?" Sakura asked. Itachi probably hadn't known this was going to happen. If there is another enemy ninja around, she will refuse to learn Ice Release or even mention that she could learn it. What a waste of time.
Baku shook his head. "Bah! Your politics don't concern us. As long as you're in Kamiki you will be fine. If the other ninja attacks you, we will immediately banish them. If you attack the other ninja, we banish you, simple as that."
"Does that mean the defending ninja also gets kicked out?"
"We don't banish you; we fail you. You can try again at a later time."
"Even if I didn't do anything wrong? Even if I was attacked?"
"Packs have arguments all the time. Sometimes we fight between us. But we never go with the aim to kill or pack members. If you can't have a cordial relationship with your partner, it will never work out. If you can't even look at each other without fighting, it won't work out."
"How many people have passed this test?"
"Not many, maybe six in the last ten years," Baku admitted, amused. "We don't place limits on the number of people that can have our contract. But we don't make our test easy. And ninja don't really know how to work together, especially if they're from different villages."
Great, she was definitely getting a ninja from another village unless Itachi pulls one out of his ass and reveals he is also vying for that sweet wolf contract.
A puff of smoke appeared a couple of feet away, revealing a wolf similar looking to Baku along with a tall, black haired man. Though he wore a Kiri headband, his dark eye was amicable. The terrifying part was that half of his face was deformed, as if wrinkled. Interestingly, he wore an eyepatch over his left eye, even though that side of his face was smooth as butter, at least compared to his right side.
Who the hell was he?
"Hello, I'm Tomi, nice to meet––"
YOU BASTARD!
5 hours after Annie's Escape
Before even waking up Sakura felt her entire body burning up. Not only was the heat uncomfortable, but she felt as if a foreign body was invading her. Sakura shot up from the bed, the sensation too perturbing to remain asleep. Much to her surprise, her body wasn't sweating, so it wasn't a fever. Instead her chakra felt oversaturated and hot, as if someone was pumping burning chakra into her.
Sakura growled and looked around the dark room, but she was alone and nothing in the room would help alleviate her chakra pain. She tried to channel chakra to her hand like she had done numerous times before, but instead of the cool green healing chakra appearing uniformly throughout her hands, angry red chakra burst through. uncontrolled. She yelped in pain and immediately stopped channeling chakra in her palms, but now she had nasty burns that actually hurt her body.
Why would her chakra hurt her? Was this because she had pushed herself too much yesterday?
No, she had pushed herself before, almost reaching chakra exhaustion, but the next day nothing like this had happened. There was something seriously wrong with her. It seemed that sleep was a catalyst for all the weird body changes she's had. She woke up in that forest with the ability to perform healing chakra. That chakra rhombus that sat on top of her left breast appeared literally overnight. Now her chakra control was haywire and a foreign chakra was trying to hurt her.
And the feeling that she was dreaming something very important just serves to remind her she has no idea who she is and what her purpose in this world is. True, right now she felt she had to protect her precious people above all costs, but her whole person was a mystery to everyone and herself. There was something very wrong, but with nothing but intuition to guide this feeling, she would just be running around in circles.
As far as she was concerned, using chakra was out, unless she wanted to burn herself alive. Sakura stomped her foot and yelled in frustration into the silent night. Out of all the times for her chakra to go haywire, it had to be while she was pursuing a group of ninja titan-shifters by herself. Oh, she was still a damned good titan-killer, but the field was uneven now if the Armored Titan and the Colossal Titan chose to engage her in a ninja fight. Even if they fought in their titan forms, she was still at a very distinct disadvantage unless she fought with a talented group.
Sakura put on yesterday's uniform, pointedly trying to ignore the smell, then assembled her 3DMG. After pursuing a ninja for almost five hours, she couldn't ignore that her body wouldn't smell so great. That might actually attract titans or ninjas with very good senses of smell, and right now she had to remain stealthy.
She took an oil lamp and left one of the many bedrooms in the destroyed house. Whoever had lived here had good taste in furniture; sad that the fight had left it in such a bad shape.
She rummaged the house for food, water, and gas for her tanks, pleased to find the Survey Corps soldiers left plenty for her. She frowned, sniffed her uniform, then scrunched her nose. Yeah, that wouldn't fly by her standards. She found the women's wing and took two pairs of shirts and pants. One pair she put on, the light green shirt replacing her trademark white shirt, and the other pair she stored in the bag. She took a rather big Survey Corps jacket and an even bigger Survey Corps cloak. Though the clothes reinforced how small she was, she enjoyed how free her limbs felt. Maybe she should ask for bigger uniforms in the future.
An envelope fell from her old jacket and Sakura almost hit herself for her stupidity. The envelope was addressed to her and the handwriting was Petra's. She still clearly remembered the day she received this letter, the embarrassing day she had displayed her full grief in front of Levi. Petra's dad had said these were her last words, but Sakura didn't have the heart to read it just yet. A part of her felt her greatest weakness was found in the words etched in the paper inside the envelope. If she read them she would only open the gates to the intense grief she still kept at bay.
But she'd be damned if she forgot such an important letter out here. She unbuttoned her shirt and squeezed the letter inside her chest bindings. There was no safe place to carry belongings in their uniforms considering the impressive pirouettes they made, but her chest bindings constricted enough that even a letter would not slip out. Sure, it'll get sweaty and gross, but at least she won't lose it.
There were only two horses left in the stable. One whinnied as soon as it saw her, and that's the one she chose. It was a rather young mare with a beautiful black coat reminiscent of Isabel's, Levi's horse. Though she and Levi had never really gotten along, Haruto and Isabel were best pals. The veterinarian had even recommended to breed them soon, since they would produce powerful young. Levi had staunchly refused, which had been weirdly cute to witness, especially when he listed his reasons at the rather confused vet. There weren't really any good reasons why not except for Levi being attached to Isabel and not wanting to go on a mission without her.
She admitted to herself his loyalty to his horse had been cute.
Sakura grabbed a nearby torch and mounted the mare, currently nameless, and set them after the trail of hoof prints on the ground. The prints would no doubt lead her to where the Survey Corps members were, though she didn't know how well she could follow the trail in the dark. She was content with the three hours of sleep, knowing it wasn't safe for her to travel in the daylight, but the tracks weren't as visible from atop a horse's back.
The Survey Corps members were smart enough to split up, probably to gather more intel about the titan appearances. Unfortunately for Sakura, she didn't have the time to follow all of the trails, so she chose the one heading south, and hoped that the trail would remain fresh enough to see in the torch-illuminated. This would've been easier in the morning, with daylight, and a full night's rest.
But there was no other time for her to follow the trail. Knowing Erwin, he would want to leave Wall Sina as soon as news of this got through. If the Wall Sina task force got to wherever the rookies where before her, there would be no way she could successfully flush out the ninja titan-shifters. She wasn't sure to what extent her revelation had affected their perception of her loyalty, but she had a feeling neither Erwin nor Levi would just let her do as she wished right now.
She truly hoped they would be able to understand with time. She was willing to work very hard to prove her loyalty, but that was only possible if given a chance. Erwin would come around sooner or later once he realized what a huge asset she was, but Levi was pickier. He didn't have to work with her if he didn't want to, and Erwin couldn't force him either.
If Mikasa had followed her orders, both Levi and Erwin knew what her powers entailed, and they would no doubt think about all the times she could've changed the tide of battle. They wouldn't understand how uninterested she was in helping their cause while at the same time go through the impossible to keep the people she loved safe. And there was no excuse for that, Sakura knew that, but she wanted at least another chance to prove herself.
This time around, she would use all of her strength to achieve the Survey Corps's goals, not only hers.
Makimi (she would've been a fool to not name her horse this) trotted in the night, never complaining about the random stops Sakura made to make sure they were still on the right path. If only she could use chakra to enhance her eyesight, she wouldn't be wasting so much time in something so easy. The torch didn't have a high illuminating radius.
But the more she traveled, the clearer the hoof prints got. Judging by the freshness, the Survey Corps members weren't going full speed, understandably so to avoid drawing the titans' attentions. Luckily for her, she could still feel the presence of titans, and her sensing radius was clear as it ever could be. She increased Makimi's trot to a gallop, confident she could afford this speed.
The night started getting less cloudy, allowing the moon to illuminate the path ahead. Sakura noticed that the hoof prints she was following met with even more hoof prints, then headed a bit north. She frowned slightly in confusion then looked up from the path to see what could've made them change their course, only to find a castle bathed in moonlight.
"I think we found them," Sakura told Makimi and caressed her side. "Just a little bit more, girl."
Sakura went at full speed towards the castle, eager to finally see people. She tied Makimi in the stable with the other horses, and her excitement grew, because this confirmed the Survey Corps members were here.
The castle was more brick than castle, considering it was partly destroyed. She could feel the soldiers' chakra presences quite clearly now, but she was in no rush now to find them. In her excitement, she had forgotten to think of a good reason to have followed them all the way to this place. Luckily, considering her titan sensing abilities, she found an excuse quite easily.
She opened the door in one of the towers and headed inside. She heard the chatter of the soldiers, unaware of her presence, and she decided for their sakes to change that. "Hello?"
The conversation immediately died down. She continued walking towards the light and heard two sets of footsteps coming her way.
"Sakura?" Nanaba exclaimed in surprise.
Gelgar appeared shortly after. "What are you doing?" he asked, devoid of any suspicion. Unlike Nanaba, Sakura had been in the same squad as Gelgar for a while, back when she was in Erwin's personal team. That will come in handy now.
"Can I talk to you two outside?"
They looked at each other for a moment and nodded. Another soldier with light brown hair ran out of the main room. Nanaba turned towards him and said, "We'll step out for a little bit, Henning? Watch over the rookies."
Henning saluted and headed back. Sakura noticed that whatever conversation had been going on before her arrival was now dead.
The three Survey Corps soldiers went outside. The night was dark, but her torchlight helped with that. She set her torch in a nearby torch holder and turned towards the two soldiers.
"What are you doing here?" Nanaba asked before Sakura could say anything. "What happened in Wall Sina?"
"I don't know. Erwin sent me to you guys to see if I could use my powers to detect the titan-shifters," Sakura lied. She felt bad about doing this with her teammates, but there was no way they would accept her otherwise, especially with the winds of treachery blowing so hard. "Captain Levi's leg was better the day of the operation so my presence wasn't required. But the place where you guys were supposed to be was infested with titans."
"Yes, titans have been sighted inside Wall Rose," Nanaba said. "My team and I tried to find a possible breach but we couldn't find any."
"Same with us," Gelgar continued. "Though we stopped in Ragako, a village north from here, and were surprised to find titans in there, though one was so deformed it couldn't even get up."
"So how did it get there?" Sakura asked.
Gelgar frowned. "Exactly. We don't know either. And the town had absolutely no clues as to how that happened. Anyway, my team didn't find any possible breaches as well. So if there's any breach in Wall Rose, it wasn't from this side."
"Even though the titans were sighted by you first."
"And Ragako. Though the village had no survivors."
So even the Survey Corps soldiers were uncertain how the titans had gotten inside. Without a breach anywhere nearby, how could've they gotten from the north Rose to south Rose, if a breach did exist? They would've been sighted a long time ago.
"You mentioned going to the original spot, right?" Nanaba continued, interrupting her thoughts. "Have you seen Mike?"
Sakura cringed. "Mike is dead."
"What!" both of them exclaimed at the same time.
"How is that possible?" Gelgar asked. "He was one of the best we ever had. He couldn't have been beaten by those titans."
"I would usually agree, but I found a patch of grass with limbs and blond hair. I assumed it was him because his hair is darker than yours, Nanaba, and now that I hear that you don't know where he is, it just confirmed what I thought."
Nanaba grimaced and looked down. "I still can't believe it," she whispered shakily.
Gelgar, though still upset about the news, didn't look heartbroken like Nanaba did. "And how did you find us so quickly?"
"I followed the trail," she admitted. "I guess it was a lucky break I followed a simple one that took me almost immediately here."
"You followed mine, then," Nanaba said, her voice slightly better. "Well, I can't say I'm happy with the news you bring, but I'm happy you're here. A titan sensor will do us well in these uncertain times."
"Yes, I'll most definitely help you out. I'll also need your help."
"What do you need?" Gelgar asked, his eyes determined.
"I'm going to lie to the rookies and tell them that Annie was captured and is currently being interrogated for names," she said. "It'll be hard, because nobody knew that we suspected her of being a titan-shifter, but I need you to be in the lookout for suspicious reactions."
"I thought you could sense titan-shifters," Nanaba mentioned.
"That's what Erwin and I thought but in all this time I've been standing here, I don't feel anything out of the ordinary."
Gelgar nodded in understanding. "So you want to flush them out."
"Yeah, and if they don't really say anything interesting, I'll stick around and see what kind of information I can gather. Are all the suspicious rookies in this castle?"
"No," Gelgar said. "We're missing a girl, Sasha Brauss. We're unsure if she's alive."
"So there's five out of six rookies here. Well, those are better odds than what I thought. If the initial plan fails, I'll just introduce myself to them and mingle. It'll give me a better glance of their personalities and hopefully I'll be able to see if they're suspicious."
"So far, none of them have been suspicious. They've followed orders and seem just as shocked about everything that's going on as us," Nanaba said rather bitterly.
Sakura would share her same negativity if she weren't a ninja. Even if she can't use her chakra, she has very keen observational skills. The only problem with her plan is that the titan-shifters most definitely knew she was a ninja meanwhile she didn't. That put her in a certain disadvantage, but she was dealing with fifteen-year-old kids. Something will eventually slip up.
"We'll just have to hope we get a lucky break, then," Sakura said grimly. "Well, are you guys ready?"
Both of them nodded and the three veterans headed back to where the rookies and the other soldiers were. The young soldiers were silently sitting, simply gazing at the fireplace that sat in the middle of the room, but their attention was immediately drawn towards the pink-haired member of their army.
Sakura straightened her back and observed each of them. She recognized a couple of faces, but they were all strangers to her. There were two girls, one of them a pretty blonde with bright blue eyes and the other a tall brunette with freckles and dark, suspicious eyes. The rest of the rookies were guys. The blond was quite built and almost looked like an adult from his facial features. The brunet was taller than all of them by a large margin and had dark features. The shortest one of the bunch was a bald kid who looked worse for wear.
"My name is Sakura Ackerman." Her last name immediately made them all stiffen. "Yes, I'm Mikasa Ackerman's sister. I'm here to let you know that the Female Titan has been captured and her identity as Annie Leonhard has been revealed."
All of the rookies let out a shocked yell. The titan-shifters were quite good at playing innocent, she had to hand it to them.
"Annie was the Female Titan?" the bald kid remarked. "But why? How?"
"We're currently trying to find out those questions," Sakura explained. "We're hoping she'll give out the names of her comrades soon enough."
"Comrades?" the blonde girl asked.
Sakura smirked menacingly. "Why, the Armored Titan and the Colossal Titan, of course. Once she reveals the names, you will all be cleared of suspicion." At that, all of the soldiers in the room were quiet, even the rookies. In fact, they seemed a bit hurt. "You must've realized a long time ago why you're here. Don't take it the wrong way, though. Commander Erwin doesn't take chances, and this will not negatively impact any of you. In fact, we have little reason to doubt all of you, considering you gave it your all during the 57th Expedition."
"So what are you doing here?" the brunette with the suspicious eyes asked.
Sakura looked at Nanaba and Gelgar, silently asking if they had seen anything that warranted an arrest, but they both shook their heads dejectedly. So her plan had failed, but she had never expected it to work to begin with. If it did, then her opponents weren't even worthy of rivaling her strength.
"I'm here to get to know all of you better," Sakura admitted. "The faster I can lay Commander Erwin's doubts to rest, the faster we can deal with this titan problem."
"You don't really us to confide in you," the brunette continued. "How can we be ourselves when you're looking for reasons to suspect us?"
"I'm an optimist." A lie, but they didn't need to know that. "I'd like to believe that none of you helped Annie Leonhard in decimating our squad. You're all kids in my eyes, my sisters age, and though I won't see you're naive, I want to believe you're innocent." Sakura looked straight at the brunette girl, who still looked suspicious. Sakura wasn't the best speaker, after all. "What's your name?"
"Ymir," she answered.
"What about you?" she asked the blonde girl sitting next to her.
"Krista," the girl answered a bit meekly.
Sakura just looked at the blond boy. "Reiner."
"Bertholdt," the dark-haired one said.
"Connie."
Sakura nodded at each of them. "Well, it's a pleasure to meet you all. We've all had quite the day, so we'll end today and start again tomorrow. Good night."
None of the rookies said anything back. Not that she expected them to; she had cracked down hard on them after all. The brunette, Ymir, had given her a hard time but considering the hard time she was going to give them tomorrow there was nothing to worry about.
She went up the stairs into the roof, content to be under the clouded night sky. She hadn't gotten much sleep, but there was no way she could sleep safely around two potential ninjas. And they were good ones, because they had masked their chakra to normal civilian levels even before she got there. They must be doing it unconsciously by now, something she should've done a long time ago.
Sakura just would've never assumed there were more ninjas inside the walls, but jokes on her for never expecting the unexpected.
Now that she was alone, she felt bad she had so blatantly lied to everyone, and was a bit alarmed at the ease she did it with. Was she so used to lying that it had become second nature to her? Besides Mikasa and possibly Eren, was there anyone in the Survey Corps who actually knew who she was, not who she claimed to be?
Instead of moping around, she should plan her strategy to follow Annie. The trail was very cold by now, but she had a feeling either the Armored Titan or the Colossal Titan would lead her to Annie eventually. The problem was time. The Survey Corps would no doubt ground her for a while because of the blatant lying she did. Also, it probably didn't look good that she shared powers with Annie, a known traitor. Her Plan A would be to continue tracking Annie, and hopefully her capture would win back the Survey Corps's trust. Plan B would be more complicated, since it meant working with the Survey Corps and winning back their trust slowly.
And that was when she felt it. The horrid chakra of titans approaching their location with incredible speed. How was that possible? Titans weren't supposed to be able to move at night! There was barely any moonlight too!
Sakura ran back inside the castle and went halfway done the stairs. "Everyone! Everyone go back up to the roof! Titans are going to surround us!"
Titans were coming, and nobody would be able to fight them.
Since this is an AU of the Naruto world, the Ice Release shouldn't be too outrageous, considering I also hinted her two main chakra natures and when mixed they make Ice. However, I feel the need to warrant this change by saying that Sakura's enemies only get stronger, and the tides are already against her. I always lamented how much weaker she was compared to her teammates. And sure, Naruto was a lot about Naruto and Sasuke's friendship, and thus having both of them be OP was necessary. But even Kakashi was OP at times, meanwhile Sakura could only punch, heal people, regenerate, and cry.
For a main female lead, her powers left a lot to be desired. So I used fanfiction powers to change that.
As for the other weirdness of the chapter, all will be explained, completely, no worries. I didn't pull that out of my ass, even if it seems like it.
The Clash of Titans Arc has a really weird timeline that's hard to explain, so I'll post the timeline once all the spoilers are done with. To the manga-readers, bear with me through Levi's POV. I add my twists here and there, but I have to put some of the SnK plot to make some sense of what's going on.
Like always, thank you so much to everyone who reviews, favorites, follows, reads and loves this story! That's all of the fuel I need. I started this story 2 years ago and I would've never known it would turn out like this. So thanks again for your continued support!
I love you all and see you next chapter!