Chapter 3: Letters and Characters

Disclaimer: I do not own Shingeki no Kyojin or Naruto

Previously: Levi leaves Naruto in Petra's care and tells Erwin and Hange about him. Erwin orders the news about Naruto to be leaked for his protection. Kurama advises Naruto to only interfere when the Scouts go on expeditions and help them in secret.

"This must be the office of their leader," Kurama observed, seeing through Naruto's eyes. The boy watched his escort curiously. She gestured for him to sit and he made himself comfortable on the couch. Naruto's eyes followed Petra, moving to Erwin's desk and picking up a pen and a plain sheet of paper. She took a seat beside him.

"Let's see." She paused thoughtfully. "Petra," she said, pointing to herself. She pointed to the boy's chest. "Your name?"

He beamed, understanding the action, and having heard her addressed several times. "Naruto," he introduced himself.

"Na-ru-to," Petra repeated. "Naruto, what a nice name." She patted his head.

"Naruto," the jinchūriki said and nodded enthusiastically. "Petora?"

"Close. It's Pet-ra," she enunciated clearly.

"Pet...ra."

"That's right!"

Naruto didn't know what she said but her actions spoke clearly. Pet-ra. Pet-ra. Petra. Two syllables. Pet-ra. This isn't so bad.

"Okay. Let's see." She picked up the pen from the table and wrote "Petra" and "22" under her name. "Petra. Twenty-two." She held out the pen to him.

"The characters are weird." Naruto could not make heads or tails of the letters. At least the number he could recognize.

"Of course," Kurama said. "Were you expecting them to write in the same way?"

"Would have been nice." He scrawled his name and age next to hers. ナルト and 8.

Petra was fascinated by the writing. So this is what a foreign language looks like. It looked difficult to do. Though she imagined it would be the same for Naruto observing her writing. From the way he was eyeing her name, it was like he had never seen anything stranger in his life. Before she could say anything, there was a growling originating from the boy's stomach. He clutched his belly mourningly. Petra giggled. "How about we get some food in you?"

"Fūdo?" Naruto asked hopefully. "Maybe some words are the same."

"Food," she repeated, mimicking eating.

"Ramen wa arimasu ka?"

She eyed him curiously. "I hope you're not allergic to anything." Petra looked at the door hesitantly before standing. "C'mon, Naruto." She held out her hand. Making sure the sight was clear, she led him to the Special Ops Squad's private barrack.

"Why would they have ramen?" Kurama asked.

"Why wouldn't they have ramen?"

"Different lands mean different vegetation. In the Land of Waves, they primarily had a seafood-based diet, remember? Konoha doesn't because we're surrounded by forests. Of course, ramen is something you can find anywhere in the Elemental Nations but that doesn't mean you'll find it here, too."

"How can you even say something so horrible?" Naruto demanded. "They have to have it. They just have to!" The mere thought of having to survive who knew how long without ramen was enough to give him deep anxiety. What kind of a barbaric, backwater world didn't have ramen?

When they arrived in the kitchen, Petra began rummaging through cupboards to find him something to eat. Naruto tried to see around her, to locate the precious stomach fell in dread when he failed to spot the food of the gods. "Pet..ra," whined, tugging the back of her jacket. "Ramen."

"Ramen?"

"Ramen. Fūdo."

"Oh, I see!" Petra said, understanding. "Ramen is food. It's what you like to eat. I'm sorry." Her smile fell. "We don't have ramen."

"I don't think ramen exists here," Kurama translated unhelpfully.

"Ramen?" Naruto said pathetically, blue eyes big and begging.

"Sorry, sweetie, no ramen."

"I hate this place."

"I thought you wanted to explore this fun, new world," the Kyūbi teased.

"This world sucks! Let's go home the minute the Kamui Stone recharges."

Sulking, Naruto watched Petra cook. She was glad he wasn't too terribly upset about the lack of "ramen." He sniffed the baked potato suspiciously before picking up the spoon. "Wait, let it cool," Petra said, stopping him. She blew on the hot potato and fanned it with her hand, causing him to smile stupidly at her for her kind gesture no one had ever done for him.

Naruto took a bite out of the seasoned potato. "Sore wa kanari yoidesu!"

"I take it you like it?" She didn't think he'd enjoy the military rations. Hopefully, Captain Levi won't mind. Fresh vegetables weren't common and seasonings were even harder to come by. Once he finished eating, she began to clean the plate, glancing at him constantly to see him observing the kitchen.

"I don't see a fridge or a microwave."

"They have some advanced tools, like the machines they used to kill those giants, but they don't have common household appliances," Kurama noted. He wondered what their medical system was like.

Naruto was having similar thoughts. "Without chakra, it'd take weeks, even months for something small like a broken bone to heal!" His thoughts returned to the heavily injured soldiers he'd seen. How did their medics keep them from dying on the battlefield without chakra? He had listened to Sakura enough to know internal injuries were deadlier than external ones. How did they keep the men and women from suffering at the hands of those? How did the medics even know the soldiers had internal injuries? "Next time they're out there I'll make sure no one dies," he swore to himself.

The rest of the squad was gathered in Erwin's office when they returned. Three pairs of eyes focused on the blond-haired boy. "I can't believe he's actually here," Gunther said in amazement.

Eld was unable to pull his eyes away from the boy. "Part of me still can't wrap my head around it."

Naruto's head bounced from face to face, trying to discern what they were saying.

"Have you learned anything from him, Petra?" Oluo asked.

"He said his name was Naruto and he's eight-years-old." Petra gestured to the paper on the table. "He wrote his name."

"Whoa." Oluo snatched it up. "Looks like a bunch of squiggles!"

"Our language probably looks the same to him," Gunther said, peeking over Oluo's shoulder at the paper.

Naruto yawned. He picked up Petra's previously discarded cloak, using it as a makeshift blanket and opting for a nap.

"You're really gonna take a nap?" Kurama asked.

"Why not?" The transportation had taken a toll on him. The adrenaline was gone and after eating, he was feeling drowsy. "Can you keep up the Transformation jutsu for me?"

"What is he—"

"Shh!" Eld shushed him. "Quiet, Oluo! He must be exhausted. He needs to rest."

Naruto woke up with a yawn and stretched, scratching his stomach absent-mindedly. He rubbed the last of the sleep out of his eyes.

"You're awake."

His eyes snapped up to meet Levi's flat gaze. The room was empty. Petra and the others were gone. He aimed his bright smile at Levi.

Levi glanced momentarily at the door before approaching him and laying the map of the Walls flat on the table. "Naruto," he addressed the child, wearing a neutral expression—the least threatening he could manage.

"Sore wa watashidesu! Uzumaki Naruto! Mirai no Hokage!"

His rapid response surprised the man. Levi's brow furrowed, unsure of how to proceed. "I take it you introduced yourself? I'm Levi."

Naruto tilted his head.

"Levi," he said and pointed to himself.

"Rivaille."

"Levi," he corrected.

"Rivaille."

"Levi."

"Rivaille."

"L—"

"Naze kare wa jibun jishin o kurikaesu nodesu ka?" Naruto stared at him in confusion. "Why does he keep repeating his name over and over?" Naruto asked Kurama the same question.

"Because you're mispronouncing it."

"No, I'm not!"

"It's L, not R," Levi stressed. Naruto appeared utterly confused by the attempt to clear the pronunciation. Realizing it wasn't worth it, Levi gave up. "Never mind," he said and tapped the map. "This is our map. Map," he repeated unsurely. "Where are you from?"

The jinchūriki scanned the paper in interest. "Looks like a map," he said to Kurama. The three perfect circles represented the Walls, he guessed. He saw where Levi was pointing. "Is that where we are?" He waited for Levi to continue and Levi stared at the boy expectantly.

Maybe he didn't understand me. Levi looked back at the map where his finger was pointing. "How hard is it to guess what I'm asking?" Levi muttered under his breath. "You." He pointed to Naruto, then the map. "Home. Point."

"Why is he so short?"

"Why are you so short?" Kurama retorted.

"Not all of us can be humungous chakra monsters!"

"Are you listening?" Levi said impatiently when the boy didn't answer.

"Hey, I get it! He wants to know where I'm from! But how am I going to explain I'm not from this world?"

"You can't. I'm not even sure they think it's possible. Without chakra, how could they? This world may be smaller than ours but I doubt it only encompasses the small amount of land on this map. Just point off the map. He knows you're not from around here and still he's only showing you their country's map. It's possible those giants have trapped them in and they don't know what lies outside their Walls."

Naruto found that rather peculiar. Surely they had old maps and history books. But the fox did bring up a valid point. If Levi hadn't brought a map of the countries outside their lands, it had to be because they didn't have one. "What if he wants me to draw it? Should I draw Fire Country?"

"Hey!" Levi snapped his fingers, noticing Naruto's dazed eyes. Brats and their tiny attention spans.

"Pretend not to understand or know. Your age gives you a legitimate excuse." Kurama was very proud that his idea of presenting Naruto as a child would work so amazingly in their favor.

"You get it?" Levi perked up when the boy took the map.

Naruto pretended to study it. "Watashi no mura wa koko ni wanai." He shook his head at Levi. "Jitaku." He pointed to the empty space above the illustration of the Walls, at the tip of the paper. Home.

This is it. Levi thought, excited.

"S," Naruto said suddenly and pointed to Stohess, recognizing the letter. "I know some of these! It's the same characters as the ranking system!" He noticed Yarckel District. "D," he said, then. "C." It was smaller but the shape was the same.

Petra entered the office to find Levi gaping at the proud child. "Captain?"

He went to the bookshelf and pulled out the first book he saw. He opened it to a random page and presented it to the boy. "He recognized three letters," Levi told her. "Let's see if he can recognize more."

It looks like gibberish. Naruto scanned the pages, blinking at the blocks of text that meant nothing to him. "B," he said. He flipped the page back to one with a picture. It was less dizzying to look at. "A," he said, recognizing another letter. Then he pushed the book away, unfamiliar with the rest.

"If he knows our alphabet our people must have crossed paths at some point," Petra concluded. She wrote her full name and handed Naruto the pen and paper. "Petra Ral," she said her full name and gestured to herself, then the two words. "Naruto," she said and gestured to him and the paper.

"Does he even have a last name?" Levi wondered out loud.

Naruto understood what she was trying to convey. "Uzumaki Naruto," he said and wrote out his full name: うずまきナルト

Petra marveled at the characters. "Look how different the two written languages are. And the last three letters are what he had down when he only wrote his first name earlier. From how he said his full name now and how it's written, I guess his people say family names first."

"There is no way he knows five letters that also happen to be in our alphabet," Levi said, considering the vastly different written language. It was far too unlikely to be a coincidence.

"I never realized how different those characters, the ones used for the ranking system, are from the rest." Naruto glanced at the map with the labeled cities and districts.

"It is strange," Kurama admitted. "It was the Second Hokage who created the infrastructure to ensure order and stability that the other villages also adopted. He also set up the ranking system so children and underqualified ninja wouldn't be sent out to be slaughtered on missions above their caliber."

"How do you know that?"

"I know everything you learn. But unlike you, I retrain the history you were taught in the Academy."

"You were also there for that history when it happened, cheater."

"Naruto." Petra handed him a drawing: a boy, Naruto, accompanied by a woman and a man who looked like a taller version of him. She didn't know whom he took after, his mother or his father, but hoped she got the idea of "parents" across. She circled their headquarters in Wall Rose and slowly printed his name in kanji above it. "Your parents," she said, pointing to the drawing and then the map. "Where are they?"

Naruto's face crumbled.

"Do you think it means they're dead?" Levi frowned. Naruto wasn't crying, though. Were they separated? And the boy wasn't sure if they were still alive?

"Maybe," Petra said. "But he doesn't even have tears in his eyes." He looked sad and stared longingly at the drawing.

Levi exhaled loudly, already tired of the language barrier, breaking Naruto out of his thoughts. The jinchūriki pointed to his parents and shook his head. "He doesn't know. And we don't know if he means they're dead or lost or he himself doesn't know what happened to them." Even Levi wasn't morbid and cruel enough to tell Petra to draw the man and woman dead to get confirmation. But they definitely needed to know later on.

"I want to join the Survey Corps and slaughter every Titan!"

Erwin studied Eren closely and smiled. "Impressive. Very well, I will accept your enlistment." He stood. "We will meet again on the day of the trial. Please wait patiently until then."

"Yes, sir."

Erwin was tempted to ask him about the foreign boy. Eren found out about his abilities the same day they found a child from the outside world. Was it mere coincidence or something else? But they couldn't talk in private with the two Military Policemen standing guard. He left the underground cells. The sky had darkened and the commander was curious to know what had the people whispering so furiously: Eren or the boy? Or both.

"Commander Erwin," a young woman called out.

"Yes?"

"Chief Zackly would like to see you, sir."

He had a fairly good idea of what it was about. His suspicions were confirmed when he entered Zackly's office to find him sitting behind his desk, Dot Pixis, Nile Dok, and the four Assemblymen of the Royal Government present as well. Eren was under military jurisdiction. The four noblemen had no authority over him. They must be here because of the boy.

"Are the rumors true?" One of them spoke up. "You found an outsider?"

The assemblymen appeared nervous.

"A boy," Erwin answered calmly. "After we received news of the appearance of the Colossal Titan and the assault on Trost, I issued a retreat. Squad Levi was preparing to leave when they encountered him, running from a Titan. They killed it and brought him back."

"Why weren't we told immediately? This is treason!"

"Commander Erwin notified me as soon as he found out," Zackly said before the tomato-faced man started his spiel. "The boy was in shock and didn't say a word until hours later. Erwin and most of the top-ranking officers were already here in Mitras by then to deal with the situation regarding Eren Yeager. A messenger arrived and informed Corporal Levi and he told Erwin, who came to me immediately. I then sent someone to notify you all."

"It was already too late by then," a dark-haired nobleman muttered. Some of the newspapers were already running the story. More would be following soon. "It's too big to contain now."

"How did so many people find out he's from outside the Walls?" The man with the mustache asked suspiciously. "Levi's squad should have kept silent. We should have been informed first. They must be punished. They should have acted faster, followed protocol, and told their superiors immediately of the situation. We should have known sooner. Something this significant, it exceeds military jurisdiction."

"Levi and his squad initially thought he was someone who had accidentally been brought outside on the expedition. Only when he was over his shock, when he spoke in a foreign language, did they figure it out."

"A foreign language?"

"You can't understand him?"

They looked relieved and no one missed it.

"Yes," Erwin confirmed. "Dozens of people overheard. Naturally, they talked in shock and wonder and within minutes, the entire HQ knew. The family members and other civilians present were overjoyed and spread the good news."

Despite the time of day, reporters had rushed back to work and started printing the rumors, questioning the validity. If the claim made by too many people, many of them reputable sources, to ignore had any truth to it, they wanted to beat their competitors and be the first ones to break the story.

"It spread like wildfire," Pixis said before the assemblymen could speak. "This is amazing news, after all!"

Even Nile was nodding in agreement. "That's right. This is a historic moment."

"I sent Levi back to investigate once we got the message," Erwin continued from where he left off before the interruption. "Though I am not sure how much he can glean. He told me the boy only appears to be seven or eight-years-old."

"He's a child," Nile said, incredulous. "How did he survive in Titan territory?"

"I don't know," Erwin admitted. "I don't know if we can know."

"The Garrison soldiers stationed on the Wall in that area were told to keep an eye out," Zackly said. "And ordered, under the threat of treason, to only alert me if they saw anything remotely out of the ordinary." The treason bit he had ordered only for the benefit of the nobles in case they checked. "It's been hours but there's been nothing to report."

"There was plenty of daylight. They wouldn't have abandoned a child—his parents or whoever he was with—without checking around first. It's possible they're dead," Pixis speculated.

A knock came from the door. "Enter," Zackly said.

"This better be important," one of the noblemen growled.

"Sir, we've received reports of angry mobs."

Erwin hid his smirk, pretending to be concerned.

"The people are demanding the truth. They want to know about the boy. They want to see him."

"If we don't get on top of this now it may escalate and we could have full-blown riots on our hands," Nile said grimly.

"But—"

"The situation is out of our control," Pixis interrupted the portly assemblyman. "We cannot keep a lid on this. The atmosphere was already tense with news of Yeager and his abilities. If we try to hide the discovery of the foreign boy and extinguish the rumors, then even here in the capital there will be pandemonium."

"There is no other choice," Erwin said, trying to make the situation seem even more critical to scare the noblemen further. "If there is upheaval on whether we're trying to hide the boy" —he turned to the young woman, who nodded in confirmation it was about the child and not Eren— "then there will be mayhem in the streets. After all, this news concerns all of humanity."

It worked. The Assembly exchanged terrified looks, faces drained of blood at the idea of bloodshed in Mitras. Their precious Wall Sina would not save them from the uproar caused by the people already living there.

Erwin smiled internally, triumphant at the looks on their faces. Success. The boy was safe. The next step was to somehow convince them to let the Survey Corps take custody of him.

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