Chapter 7: The female titan.

PART 1

chapter 7 is finally here, thank you so much for your support and the love. You have no idea how much your reviews mean to me.

SPOILERT ALERT: From now on there would be spoiler from the manga.

Special thank to: Nameayudolly Anime7 AngelAzazel88Guest Yomiii21 hyaenahyaena12 Shendelzare,ii-N3koChan


Erwin smith liked to think he was a patience man, a very patience one, after all he has to deal with stupid and horny teenagers in daily basis, but for some reason he would clench his fist whenever the pinkette in front of him sighed in discontent. How many times has it been now? 6 or 7? He wasn't so sure anymore, is not like it annoyed him, it was quite the opposite if he was honest, but he knew those kind of sighs and he wasn't about to get involved in whatever predicament was keeping her from doing her job.

-"Don't ask her, it's not of your business" Erwin reminded himself. "Just keep working; she'll have to stop eventually"

Sigh.

"Alright that's enough" He said startling Sakura. Her emerald eyes widened in surprise and she opened her mouth to ask what was wrong but the look on the commander eyes was intense enough to silence her.

"You've been like this since you arrived in the morning, is there a problem?"

Sakura didn't answer right away, instead she choose to glare at the tiny leather book in her lap. Erwin raised one of his eyebrows and leaned forward to grab the small book in his hands. He recognized it as one of his history books.

"Does this book bother you?" He asked in a confused tone.

"Is not the book" she defended almost childishly "It's the content"

Erwin frowned and misunderstanding Sakura´s anger with confusion so he began to explain the titan's history the best he could.

Once he was finished he noticed her expression hadn't change.

"Is not that I don't understand, its just that everything seems so forced" She cringed "Almost like there's an important part missing"

"Might as well started from there"

"I tried but, you were so caught on talking that I didn't wanted to interrupt you" She flashed him an apologetic smile. "Sorry, I'll help you more from now on"

Erwin nodded and went back to his seat, not before directing a contemplating gazed to Sakura. She was definitely something else. After all not even his soldiers that had been living all of their lives behind the walls never noticed the inconsistency in their history, Sakura was right something was missing and it was his duty as the commander of the survey corps to figure it out what it was.

(….)

Sakura was grateful with the commander, ever since her little incident with Hanji she had started to spend her days inside of his office reading the books that were collecting dust in his bookshelf. The first 5 days Erwin was confused as to why she keep on showing every morning, since her punishment was finished while ago, but after understandings her position he allowed her to stay, as long as she helped him with paperwork, obviously. So in some way she had become the commander's unofficial assistant.

Every morning she would wake up at dawn, stretch her muscles and then she would go for a run around the castle, after that she returned to her room take and shower get dressed grab some breakfast for her and the commander and then they would eat it together in his office.

At first it was a little awkward for both of them but after 2 days the commander warmed up to the idea of Sakura being there almost 24/7 so sooner than later he started conversations by his own will much to Sakura's surprise.

But everything wasn't a fairytale. It didn't took Sakura much time to notice that the commander suffered from insomnia. The way his shoulders were always tense and the few times she had catch him spacing out were an indicator that something big was about to happen.

Sakura was mentally debating with herself if she should ask what was wrong. Worst case scenario he gets mad and doesn't answer.

Taking a deep breath Sakura crossed the room and seated in front of him.

"There's something wrong, Sakura?"

She nodded and met his gaze. "Commander, I can't help but notice that lately everyone is tense, nervous- The lack of sleep is obvious in their faces" She took a deep breath before continuing "What I mean to say is, What´s going on?"

Erwin didn't answer immediately he only stared at her with an intense gaze making sakura wonder if, she perhaps had stepped on her boundaries. She opened her mouth to apologize but he raised a hand to silenced her.

"Your observations skill don't cease to amaze me, but yes, you're right" He stood and walked to the window motioning her to follow him,hesitantly Sakura stood up as well and walked next to him.

"In a week we'll be going to the inner wall to capture the female titan" He confessed.

Wall Sina, if she recalled correctly was the home of the wealthiest civilians among the walls also the military police resided there, so to think the female titan was one of them…

Sakura feelt her mouth go dry. She had a weird feeling in the pit of stomach.

"Sir, and what exactly am I suppose to do while you're gone?"

And for the first time since her arrival, Erwin smith looked completely clueless.

(….)

The commander words had left Sakura feeling dreadful. Every passing hour was a nightmare for her.

"I should distract myself. Maybe I should check captain shortie. Maybe he wants to spar"

Knocking on his office door Sakura waited for him to let her in, but after 2 minutes of hearing grunts and swearwords she decided to enter without permission. The image that welcomed her was something she wasn't expecting.

"Captain, what happened to your leg?"

"Nothing brat, close the god damn door" he grunted.

She approached him and hesitantly kneeled next t him.

"Let me take a look"

"That won't be necessary" he said as he grabbed both of her wrists and glared daggers at her.

"Bullshit. Let me see" At her insistent tone Levi let go of her wrist not before giving her a warning look "Try something funny and you wouldn't live to see tomorrow"

Sakura huffed at the mistrust but either way she set to work.

It was really satisfying to see Levi's expression change from constipated to surprise constipated. With a smug grin Sakura rested her glowing hand in his ankle. "Surprisingly its not broken, just twisted"

"Tch, I already know that"

Sakura growled. "At least let me finish talking!"

"Can you fix it or not?"

"Yes I can! And you're lucky I made a vow to help the wounded or else I'll would've left your sorry ass a long time ago"

"Tch I didn't ask you to heal me, in fact if I recall correctly," He leaned closer to her" you offered your help" he finished with a smug tone.

"Agh! You get on my nerves! I'm done"

She stood up not waiting for a thank you (since she knew she won't be getting one) and left the room not before shouting to him to be careful and to not strain his ankle.

"Annoying woman"

"What did you call me?!"


The following days went by rather peacefully. The capture of the female titan was growing closer with each passing days. The atmosphere in the castle was tense, everyone tried to keep themselves busy either cleaning or tending to the horses, even Mikasa had offered to start their lessons earlier. And since Sakura wasn't one to complain about training she happily accepted.

Mikasa´s movements were fast but coordinated. Sakura frowned feeling slightly jealous of the girl ability to move gracefully around the trees without breaking a sweat while she was -Still- struggling to tied the belts properly . Whoever created this uniform hated humanity with a burning passion.

"She seems distracted" Sakura thought as she put some chakra in the soles of her feet to catch up with the younger girl.

"Hey"she called softly landing next to Mikasa who just limited to stare at her with confusion in her eyes.

"What is it?" She eyed her "You need help with the gear?" She asked in a bored tone but sakura knew she was concerned- in her own way- about her training.

"Not really, it just.-" Sakura paused for a moment trying to think about the right words "You seem distracted, so I thought some girl talk could help" She finally blurted out hoping she haven't scared Mikasa.

"Distracted?" She repeated in a quiet voice. Mikasa was too deep in thought to notice that Sakura had placed one of her hands in her shoulders to comfort her.

"I know we meet less than a month ago, but," She paused and suddenly feeling like Naruto she gave Mikasa her best thumbs up and a smile that could make Gai's seem dull. "I'm here for you, everything will be alright"

Mikasa's eyes widened but she remained quiet, opting to nod her head instead. "She's not lying" Mikasa thought smiling inwardly.

Mikasa face betrayed no emotion but the pinkette knew that her words had been listened and appreciated.

"Oi! Stop slacking off and finish right now. Lunch is almost done" screamed Connie from beneath them.

"Coming!" Sakura shouted before jumping off from the tree, not before giving mikasa another smile.

(...)

Lunch time was filled with jokes and laughter; the tense atmosphere was temporally forgotten by the cadets thanks to Sasha. As soon as the lunch was served the girl didn't miss a beat to start devouring the food in front of her for her peer's amusement.

"Is she always like this?" Sakura asked smiling at Sasha's antics.

Connie smirked "Yes" he admitted and motioned her to come closer. "She even stole meat from the higher ups once"

Sakura gasped in surprise as she eyed the other girl. In her short time here she had barely eat any meat. She had deduced it was because of the small terrain inside the walls. Considering wall Rose was the only one producing for themselves and wall Sina… Meat must be something extremely pricey and difficult to get, and for Sasha to risk her neck for something like that, it seemed such a Naruto thing to do that Sakura couldn't help but laugh making the people surrounding her to laugh again.

"What's so funny?" Sasha asked trying to swallow two loaf of bread at once.

And again they laughed.

"This feels so familiar." Sakura thought sadly. "It just like the time we shared in Ichiraku."

"I need some air."

"Sakura" Eren called her. "Where are you going?

"You barely touched your food" Armin said in a worried tone making everyone turn to stare at her curiously.

"I'm not hungry" She grimaced. "Besides, I need to take the commander his lunch" She got up to leave not before pushing her half eaten food at Sasha who just mumbled something that sounded like thanks and continued devouring the food.

Sakura hadn't lied, she had truly lost her appetite the moment she remembered her friends. "I need to stop my self pity party. Instead of getting sad I better used these emotions to keep going." She thought while smiling.

"Wait for me guys, I'm coming."

"Commander" She called while entering his office. "I brought your lunch"

Erwin seemed surprised for a moment but quickly composed. Once his serious mask was back on he thanked her and dug up into the food.

"You're taking your assistant role really seriously" he said in between bites.

Sakura smiled. "Is not the first time I do something like that" she said but didn't elaborate any further, to which Erwin didn't press in the matter. He was too grateful for her gesture to bother her right now, but that didn't mean this wasn't going to be topic for future conversations.

That afternoon Erwin explained some basic tactics to sakura, he even went as far as to show her the survey corps actual expedition's formation. Sakura was amazed, whilst she wasn't a strategic like Shikamaru she had spend enough time in the battlefield to not recognize a good strategy when she saw one, it could obviously be even better, so that's was why she was still in Erwin office. He had complimented her and even acknowledged that his strategy wasn't the best and assured her that maybe, in the future they would be able to put her advice in practice.

"That's enough for one day" He said. Despite looking a little tired, Sakura could see the small smile playing on his lips.

She smiled, satisfied with today's turn of events. "I'll see you tomorrow. Goodnight commander"

"Darius was right; you're truly humanity last hope." Erwin admitted to himself.


"I shouldn't be here"

Sakura thought as she glanced at Reiner with the corner of her eye. She couldn't help but feel that her place was next to the commander, she knew that some cadets still thought of her as the female titan, so if they saw the titan and she wasn't there, wouldn't that make then more suspicious?. I wish Mikasa or Armin were here.

"Someone's looks conflicted" Reiner said as he took a seat next to her.

Her muscled tensed up in anticipation. So when Reiner didn't do more than stare at her she finally decided to answer. "I'm tired" was all she said faking a yawn.

"Me too, well more like everyone is tired." He admitted.

Is not that she dislike Reiner, in fact she actually enjoyed the giants duo presence, she could even cosider them her friends. But with everybody on edge she couldn't help to be a little jumpy around so many strangers. Specially when they were giving her mean looks.

"Don't worry about them" Reiner reasured her. "They're just nervous"

"I know. I just want this to be over"

"Me too"

And in that moment she could swear he wasn't only talking about the mission.

But for her sanity's sake she decided to ignore it for now, instead she focused her attention on Bertolt who gave her a nervous wave. Sakura narrowed her eyes in deep thought causing him to step back until he looked like he wanted to become one with the wall. Sakura noticed this and immediately feel guilty.

"Bertolt" she said smiling apologetically "Sorry, I didn't mean to make you nervous"

Reiner only laughed and patted the taller man in the back. Apparently he found Bertolt reaction really funny so Sakura couldn't help but laugh lightly as she sat next to him. "What are you guys playing?"

"Chess" Reiner answered as he moved one of his pieces, the one that looked like a little person wit h a hat on.

"What's the point's of it" she asked genuinely curious, after her all it reminded her of Go.

"You have to try to kill the other opponent Kings"

Sakura smiled and leaned closer to pick a piece to analyze it. "What piece is this?"

"The queen" Bertolt answered looking more nervous than before.

"It the most powerful piece in the whole game" Reiner complemented. "Losing this piece is the most devastating blow a player can face"

"So if I want to take down my other opponent" She said whilst returning the queen to her former place "All I have to do is capture their queen"

Both men shared a meaningful look and nodded.


Cliffhanger dun dun. Thoughts on this chapter, was it good, bad, regular?

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