Chapter 12: Misconception
Eren wasn't in his bed when I awoke. I was more than surprised to find that Levi nor Eren woke me, and there was a fresh pair of clothes sitting on top of my drawer. I picked up the white jeans and put them on quickly after taking my shorts off, then wiggled off Erens shirt and put on my white collar long sleeved uniform, along with my brown jacket. I eyed the belts resting on by a pair of new brown boots, along with a pair of socks. My previous belts and boots survived the heat, but new ones didn't hurt…who brought them in anyway? It was either Hanji or Levi, they could have at least woken me up then. I grabbed the socks and sat down on my bed in order to put them on quickly. I grabbed the belts and wrapped them around my leg, trying hard to remember how it was wrapped around Levi's. I buckled them around my upper thigh with a wince, my body was sore from wearing them and getting knocked around the air by the female titan. I proceeded to wrap the remaining pieces around my other leg, over my thigh and around my waist. I gripped the upper belts and latched them into my shoulders and strained my arms to buckle them behind my back. Proud of myself for finally learning the secrets of putting their complex uniforms, I stepped into my boots and rushed into the bathroom to wash my teeth quickly. I went over the events of last night in my head while I brushed, minty foam slightly spilling from my mouth. I wasn't planning on Sasha being there with me. In her point of view, she sneaked out at night to eat food with her captain. Would she bring last nights events up with him? I hoped not, that would cause a lot of confusion on their part, and Sasha would give herself away without knowing. I couldn't help but think it was funny. I sure caused a bit of mayhem around here...
I spat the paste into the sink and washed my mouth with water before finally heading out. I stretched my back as i walked towards the door I passed through last night, my feet climbing the steps with ease. I didn't even notice the stairs that night, probably due to my haste in not getting caught. The door creaked in the silence as I opened it and I made my way into the cafeteria. It was empty and the grey light shone through the fog, penetrating the windows and giving the room a ghostly glow. What time was it anyway? It seemed too early for anyone to be up. I shut the door behind me and walked into the middle of the tables, catching a glimpse of someone just a few ways outside the window. I went up to the cold glass surface and stared out, watching the person crouching in front of a wrapped thing in the chilly fog. The person was crying, I could tell because their shoulders were shaking, despite the distance they were at, it was an easy gesture to spot.
"This is the first time iv'e seen corporal Levi cry." Eren startled me by talking. He was seated on a table near the large windows, facing the person.
"Eren! you scared me, wait, that's Levi?" I breathed, pressing my face to the glass now. It was him, I recognized that half cut hairstyle anywhere. It was odd watching him now, the way his shoulders shook, Levi was crying silently.
"What is he crying about?" I asked, gawking at the unfamiliar sight before me. I couldn't see the captains face because he had his back to us, and that made it harder to picture how his expression might have been right now.
"They're going to bury the bodies right now, Eld is the only one in his team that wasn't thrown off the cart." Eren spoke softly, clutching a cup of coffee. I swallowed the lump that formed in my throat. So that's what the wrapped thing was, Elds corpse.
"Should I?" I asked, wanting to comfort Levi but not sure if it was appropriate. I felt sorrow for the loss too, especially Petra's, but having known them for only a couple days, it was nothing compared to how Levi felt. He really did care...was I wrong about him all along?
"Just let him be, i'm sure he will only get embarrassed at being seen like that." Eren said smoothly, sipping his drink slowly, savoring the taste. I nodded in agreement and joined him in the table.
"Is everyone else still asleep?" I asked, wanting to change the subject quickly.
He nodded, blue eyes boring into mine. "They should be up shortly, It's Connie and Christa's turn to cook so they should be the first ones..."
"I see..." I stared at the chipped wood surface of the table. "Hey...who brought me my clothes?" I asked.
"Bertholdt did, Levi was going to do it but wanted to see Eld before they buried him, so He insisted on taking them to you, I was busy helping Hannes carry the body outside." He stated glumly.
I frowned, clearly not liking the idea of having random guys pop into the room while I slept, especially while I was alone. "I want a lock on our door." I said. He nodded in agreement.
"That's what I told Hanji, she said to wait another week." He huffed in annoyance. We sat in silence for a few minutes until Connie and Christa walked in with sleepy faces, directly heading back into the kitchen without muttering a hello.
"Are we invisible?" I said sarcastically. Well I didn't see Eren here either, so I took no offense.
"I think it's just bright by the windows, hey, what are those scrolls for in your drawer?" He asked curiously, then cringed, realizing his mistake. I smiled, not bothered at all from the fact he snooped. "I-Im sorry, it's just that, uh, I was looking for something, um, a brush...and I found these different colored scrolls with Chinese symbols."
"Japanese." I corrected him. "and I don't have a brush unfortunately, i'll have to get one, as for the scrolls..." I reached into my pouch and took out a green one, setting it down on the table and flipping it on its side. "Each one is different, this here is a weapon scroll, the kanji isn't really important unless it's a scroll to store information, jutsu's, or other written things like surprise genjutsu." Eren stared, completely clueless. I sighed, it wasn't easy to explain. "Observe." I opened the scroll and watched as smoke popped up, making Eren jump back. Weapons lined the surface, various Kunai, Shuriken, and even numbchucks were on display.
"Cool...but they appeared when you opened the scroll...how is it possible to have all that in there in that tiny little thing?" He carefully examined the unopened part of the scroll, looking for a trick. There wasn't any, it looked like a roll of tight ribbon, but once opened the weapons lined the paper. It was an easy thing to do, even a genin could master this, but in the eyes of Eren it was sorcery, witchcraft.
"It's a type of object transferring jutsu, it's basically like transporting the objects in another place, inside the scroll, and they appear once it's opened." I explained carefully.
"Whats a jutsu?" He asked, perplexed at my use of vocabulary. I opened my mouth to explain, when Jean, Sasha, and Ymir burst into the room, interrupting me.
"Ahh! The cute little pixie is up already." The tall dark haired girl exclaimed loudly, making her way over to us. I shuddered and shrank back not wanting to be close to her. Reiner Sat across me, followed by Bertholdt. When did they even come in? Ymir sat next to me, draping her arm over me hard and pulling me in. I struggled in her grasp. Sasha sat on my other side.
"Goodmorning Eren, Sakura, mmm smell that? Christa is making potatoes, im starving." Sasha stated, drooling in delight. I deadpanned. Seriously? She was starving after last night?
"H-hey Ymir, your going to hurt her if you grab her like that..." Bertholdt stuttered, eyeing me, worried.
"Hm? I'm going to hurt a titan shifter who can probably smash through this building just by walking through it?" Ymir asked sarcastically, challenging the tall man. He looked down, twiddling his thumbs. "Thought so." She smirked.
I tore myself away from her, and met her gaze steadily. "Even so I would appreciate it if you respected my need for distance." I said smoothly, earning a small frown from her.
"Of course." She replied, propping her elbows on the table and staring at the weapons displayed on the scroll.
"Whats that?" Levi's sudden voice made us all turn. He stood over us with a small cup in hand. He showed no signs of having been crying earlier, he seemed like the old cold as ice Levi.
"Oh, Corporal, Sakura was just about to tell us about her village." Eren muttered. I smiled and motioned for him to sit by Sasha. He complied, dragging a chair from another table and setting it on the end of ours, Sasha's end. I tensed up, knowing exactly what the problem with those two together was.
"Goodmorning captain, how did you sleep?" Sasha said bluntly, staring at Levi so carefully with wide eyes, I almost shrieked.
He eyed her with a high eyebrow, apparently Sasha never asked him those kinds of things. Crap. "Morning, I slept just fine thank you." He said stoicly, taking a sip from his cup.
"I see..." Sasha stated, staring deep into his eyes. I was getting nervous.
"DAMMIT! who the hell keeps eating everything I save! My pudding is gone!" Jean howled in rage, tossing the empty bottle that was once filled with pudding on the floor and stomping on it. Sasha glanced at Levi quickly, I looked down guiltily.
"Maybe you ate it but just don't remember." Ymir yelled over to him with a grin.
"Did I?" Jean scratched his head, deep in thought. Sasha bit her nails nervously, stealing glances at Levi as he drank his tea or whatever was in that cup.
"Of course you did, now come on, don't you want to hear about my village?" I blurted out quickly, waving my arm around. He grumpily muttered something under his breath and picked up the flat bottle, dumping it in the trash before making his way over to us.
Mikasa and Armin entered the room, sniffing the air hungrily. The smell of cooking food was wafting in the air and it was great. Armin sat next to Reiner while Mikasa sat next to Ymir, looking like she wanted Bertholdt and his muscular friend out of the table so she could sit next to Eren. Jean dragged a chair to the other end of the table by Mikasa and opposite of Levi.
"So, Sakura, you were saying...whats a Jutsu?" Eren asked, leaning forward a little.
"Oh yes, Jutsu is merely a term for skill or technique, everyone in my village that practices the art of shinobi has to have at least one, its just a special someone has like spitting fire, throwing wind, or super strength like me."
"Wait...spitting fire? seriously? that sounds ridiculous." Jean muttered.
Ymir snorted, "Turning into a Titan might sound ridiculous to her people you know, it goes both ways." As much as I didn't like Ymir, I liked how she defended me. Jean huffed and tilted his head to the side, resting it on the palm of his hand.
I continued. "A former team mate of mine could do that, he was excellent in the fire style, my other team mate and close friend is a wind user, he can focus chakra in the palm of his hand and form energy combined with wind to attack, he's really strong, far stronger than me really." I smiled as I remembered watching Naruto train under a waterfall all those months ago, he was always trying so hard to be strong, and he did a good job of it.
"That sounds like some type of superhero, it's interesting, Sakura, you say there are no titans where you originate from, is it peaceful?" Armin asked. I thought about it silently, contemplating the question.
"Not really, there are always problems between villages, we were about to be involved in a war before I came here, this evil man who can summon snakes betrayed my village a long time ago and came back to destroy it." I sighed in worry. "I wonder how they are doing, if my mentor is looking for me..."
Armin looked at my face sympathetically. "Still, even with all that, it must be better than here, look at us, we're the last of humanity, we don't have super powers like your people, there's nothing left to do but fight and fail..."
"It's not like that anymore, Sakura and Eren are on our side." Levi said calmly. Armin nodded.
"Can we maybe visit a place like that?"Armin stated shyly. I shook my head.
"I'm afraid not, just passing through a scroll will take a significant amount of chakra and i'm not sure if my body will come out okay, so I might have to use my seal, still, I can regenerate with my titan abilities... for a normal person to pass...Eren might make it, since he is a titan shifter and can regenerate, I still haven't experimented, I will need time." I said . He nodded in understandment.
"You say you can summon a slug to heal, how is that possible, what do you mean by that?" Bertholdt asked with great curiosity, he held my gaze admiringly.
"Ah that, some of us have summons, particularly sannins but others can have them as well just not the three main summons, anyway, my summon is a giant slug about the size of a titan, if not a bit bigger, her name is Katsuyu and she can talk, her power is to heal, but she can go on the offensive if the need arises."
Sasha made a face. "Eww you named it?"
My eyebrow twitched. "She's a nice animal to be around, very calm and nurturing, and no I didn't name her, she grew up with the name I guess, each summon has their own place they reside in, my summon rests in a damp forest, the slug forest, it's a place I can go to since I have a contract with the slugs but my mentor hasn't talked to me about that...my best friend can summon a giant toad and my previous friend can summon a giant snake."
"Wonder how much salt it would take to kill something like that..." Jean muttered. I shot him a glare.
"Katsuyu would squash you before you even try something like that." I said grinning with an artery popping out of my forehead, sometimes I wondered if Jean wanted to be hit. He pouted and rolled his eyes. "My mentor could summon her as well, which is how I learned, but i'm not sure if I can summon her now, I have to draw blood and i'll turn into a titan if I do that..." I trailed off hopelessly.
"You can do it as long as you don't have a goal in mind, I told you." Eren said reassuringly.
"But how can I do that?"
"It's not impossible, i'll help you." Levi said. My heart sped at the thought and I looked down, a bit flushed.
"Thank you..." I muttered. wait, this was the man that kicked me in the trial, he was going to help me by kicking the crap out of me everytime I made a mistake!
"Do you think she can defeat the colossal titan?" Eren asked slowly, clutching his cup. Bertholdt and Reiner exchanged looks.
"I'm not sure, Katsuyu can spit acid that is strong enough to melt rock, if she can spit it at him, I doubt it would be able to regenerate, the acid is too strong, but I have not seen that kind of titan in action so I cant determine anything."
"It's the blasted Titan that has been screwing us, If we can get it out of the way, our lives would be so much better." Jean huffed.
"Heyyyy you keep referring to that fire person as 'previous friend', what happened?" Ymir interrupted. I sulked.
"He left and never came back, I don't really want to talk about it..." I said quickly, because if I let everything about Sasuke out now, I would cry, and that would be embarrassing.
"Oh...sorry I asked." Ymir muttered, holding back her tongue for once. No one pressed me about it farther, thankfully.
"S-so what other cool Jutsu's do your people have?" Reiner asked, changing the subject.
"This lazy ass guy that I had to put up with on a regular basis can control shadows and paralyze you with them, my rival, a boy obsessed girl, can take over your body for a limited amount of time, and lets see...my teacher, Kakashi, can summon dogs and use genjutsu, an act of trapping you in an illusion by looking at you with his left eye."
"You sound painfully ordinary compared to these people." Jean drawled lazily. I was losing my patience with this guy...
"Excuse me? I'll admit I wasn't much help when I was younger, but now i'm the best medic in my village, i'm surpassing even my mentor in strength, no one in my village has the chakra control to do those things."
"You're strong, I don't doubt that your're a huge asset in your world as well." Bertholdt stated, smiling.
I returned the smile, "Of course! I was trained by the leader of the village, a legendary sannin after all." This guy knew it all, I liked him.
"So those Kunai are used in your world, you must be of japanese decent then, based on the romanji and kanji written as well, I can understand some." Mikasa spoke suddenly. She was always quiet around me, her speaking was like hearing Hinata shout angrily.
"Oh, well I suppose, are you japanese Mikasa?" I asked curiously. She didn't look all japanese. She had different features.
"My mother was japanese, my dad was american, i'm mixed." She stated bluntly.
"I see..." I muttered, wanting to know more but deciding against asking.
"Your're japanese? They went extinct here, your're like the last pure breed standing, stay out of the streets after dark, you're a major target for human trafficking, especially because of your appearance, you stand out." Jean warned.
I didn't know what to make of that..."Okay..." I said.
"That's not going to happen under my watch, a team member of my squad will not end up in that filth." He stated, frowning. I bit my lip to stop the flush that was creeping up in me. Why did that comment make me feel this way? It wasn't as if he said he would save me...maybe I was just tired.
Eren interrupted my inner scolding,"So guys, this scroll is so cool, you'd think that more weapons wouldn't be inside right? Well they are!" Eren looked at me for permission and I nodded. He grabbed the scroll and opened it some more, puffs of smoke came out, startling those around us, making them gawk at the sight of more weapons appearing.
"That's pretty interesting." Jean said, for once not making me want to knock him out.
"Indeed, those weapons are hidden inside and only appear when you open it, it's a cool tool." Eren exclaimed.
"I wonder if it's useful for hiding porn?" Jean said loudly. Bertholdt and Eren both blushed. Levi gave a fake cough to give a hint. I almost burst out laughing, did Jean really just say that? Well I was going to take advantage of it.
"Of course it is, you can store all your magazines in there, all you have to do is put a seal on it so others wont open it, if you want, I can sell one to you, I got a spare one in my room." I said nonchalantly. I needed money, bad. I wasn't going to survive here by trading weapons.
"Whaaaat?!" Sasha squealed, red tinting her cheeks.
"If you want money, why don't you just sell your weapons? You would get a fortune out of those." Eren murmured.
"Shut up! Don't give her ideas! name your price Sakura." Jean exclaimed.
I grinned. "We can talk about this at a more appropriate time, we can get down to business then." I spoke diligently.
He thrust out a hand. "Shake on it." He ordered. Ymir giggled. I shook it firmly. "Alrighty, we have a deal." Jean grinned.
"What the hell just happened." Reiner murmured, dazed. Levi shook his head, unsure of what happened himself.
"Well that was interesting, when are you all going to leave to your own squads?" Hanji's voice startled us and we all turned to the table behind us.
"Eh? When did you get here?" Jean sputtered out. "When did she get here?" He asked Reiner.
"She was there the whole time, honestly, how does it feel like to know that we know you read porn?" Levi commented dryly. Jean pouted.
"C'mon captain, as men, we think about it! Don't tell me you've never read porn in your life." He exclaimed. Levi didn't respond.
"Your're such a pig." Sasha said, pouting. Jean groaned, frustrated that none of the boys were taking his side.
"Actually girls think about it too, especially teens, dont deny it Sasha! Sakura! Mikasa!" Hanji yelled with a huge grin. We blushed madly, it was kind of true...but I was never crude about it. The farthest I have gone was Icha Icha Paradise, which gave me the nosebleed of a lifetime. Now I understood why Kakashi was hooked.
"This is awkward..." Armin muttered uncomfortably.
"What the hell are you guys talking about?" Connie appeared before us, with a basket of fruit in his hands. Mike stood next to him with a large pot of steamy soup and Christa held a bucket of delicious fried potatoes, with a basket of warm bread.
"Food!" Sasha yelled happily.
"Hurry up and line up, the other members will be here shortly." Mike ordered. Everyone but Hanji, Levi, and I rushed to the front, where Connie, Christa, and Mike prepared the dishes.
Bertholdt looked back at me. "Do you want me to bring you your food?" He asked politely but a little too eager. I shook my head.
"No thank you, Eren will bring me mine." I already knew he would just by looking at him grab two bowls.
"Oh...I see." He replied, disappointed, then left.
Hanji sat down across from me while Levi got up to sit next to me. She watched me roll the scroll back and put it into my pouch, her eyes were still as she observed. What was she looking at?
"Sooo, when did you two become an item?" She asked out of nowhere. I looked at her sharply.
"Excuse me?" Levi and I both said at once. She frowned.
"Well I was walking down the hallway underground yesterday and ahhhh...the door to your room was open and um, well I saw inside and saw Levi sitting on your bed and you were on your knees...between his legs, he threw his head back and made an expression I have never seen him do before...must have been one hell of a blowjob." She finished.
Levi spat his beverage out and choked, coughing into his cravat violently, my face went redder than it ever did. "Hanji I was healing him! What is wrong with you?How can you just say that like...that?!" I squealed out. Wasn't she embarrassed?
"Ohhh is that so? Darn, and I got all excited for you two..." She grumbled. I groaned. Hanji was too open and honest, she needed some serious lessons on how to keep privacy. Now that I thought about it, it was probably her that I saw walking away from the opened door. I should have closed it.
"Idiot, That would be taking advantage of a minor." Levi said, frustrated with the tall woman. She pouted.
"Age is just a number." She spoke out in a sing song tone, making Levi scrunch the bridge of his nose with his fingers in frustration.
"Age is clearly a word, now shut up." He hissed. I stared at him. Just how old was Levi anyway? He couldn't be older than twenty five, and I was seventeen...So why was he making a big deal about it? Was he actually older? I was curious to know but saw Eren, Armin, and Mikasa heading towards us with food in hand. I would have to ask another day.
"Corporal? You said there was a meeting in the afternoon today, what will we be doing before that, do I have free time?" I asked hopefully.
"No, you're going to help finish cleaning the building in wall rose." He replied in a low tone. I groaned, wanting to cry. This bastard...was going to work me to death...
Eren and the others set their plates down on the table and sat down. My plate was full of chicken soup with golden rice in it. It was an odd combination, and an odd color for rice.
"Well bon appetite!" Hanji spoke out before she and Levi got up to fetch their own food. The room was filling with more and more people, were they really done with the bodies that fast? I looked down guiltily. I couldn't speak of them like they were nothing. Most of the people here wore dead faces, they suffered. Hanji was jumpy as usual but even she looked around with sympathy. Nevertheless we couldn't stay sad forever.
"What is it?" I asked, picking my spoon up to capture some of the golden rice.
Armin spread butter into his potato. "It's chicken soup with tomato rice, it's good."
I brought the spoon to my mouth and tasted, letting the mixture spread through my tongue. I chewed contently. "Holy crap it's good." I breathed. We ate in silence as the noise of talking people around us increased, the heat of the cooked food helped warm us from the unforgiving coldness of the outside weather.
...
"Is this where she was last?" A blonde woman stood over an open field in the forest, shadows danced around her slender frame as she walked around the spot where her missing student trained. Tsunade had been looking for her for two days now, and was growing anxious. Sakura missed work for a couple days at first, making her angry at how her student was slacking, then was completely nervous when she personally walked to her home to scold her, only to find it empty. It was Shikamaru who came out and said Sakura went there to train before she gave him the hokages message.
"This is it, she said she was gonna train here, after that no one has seen her since." The lazy nin spoke out. They scanned the area carefully for any sign of a fight. It was hopeless. They were in a training spot for gods sake, of course there was going to be traces of a fight.
"Maybe she just left for a trip to some other village and got sidetracked?" Shikamaru asked hopefully. He was guessing now.
"She wouldn't do that, she knows she must inform me first, she must have been kidnapped." Tsunade's voice faltered. She was dead worried.
"People have a right to disappear if they want, c'mon this is Sakura, she cant get kidnapped." He spoke calmly.
"Sakura wouldn't leave when there's a damn war coming! She wouldn't abandon Naruto!" Tsunade snapped angrily. Shikamaru flinched. Tsunade took deep breaths, calming herself. "I'm sorry...I know she didn't betray us, she was taken by a strong opponent, someone she couldn't handle, she was probably even jumped,it had to be either akatsuki or Orochimaru, It had to be." She stared out into the forest, trying to picture the scene.
"So what now?" Shikamaru asked, he was worried about her too, but was finding it hard to picture Sakura getting kidnapped. Something else happened...but he didn't know what.
"We contact Suna, they might have seen her or something..." They stood in silence for a while, thinking about where she was. "Oh Sakura, where are you?" Tsunade whimpered.
...
Authors note: Kyaaa! I got my AoT sweater shipped from japan, i love the scouting legion symbol on the back, and so far, 3 random people from around public recognized it :3 haha i'm a huge fangirl now ^^ anyway sorry if this chapter was a bit short, the next one will be longer :p and thanks so much for your reviews! they really get me inspired!
la la: Thank you so much! Glad you liked it!
Holic12: I shall ^^
fufu15: Yeah the sasuke-levi complex she has plays a role in this story ^^ Not weird at all, you just have a hyperactive imagination, which is a good thing :)
EpicJinx: Haha the transformation dispelled :) she did so before she entered the room, perhaps you read a little too fast? sorry about that, it was a filler so i didnt have much to write lol next chapters will be much longer ^^
Mst88: Haha poor Sasha, she hasnt got a clue :p
JZMN: Will do :) im happy you like it!
pixicropse: Hmm you mean like...do...a...lemon? :0 kyaaa! I dont even know how other writers can write lemons without...*insert nosebleed* Although i know im guilty of reading them lol Well if its what the readers want, then i can put a lemon ^^
Kaori and Yoshi: Yes I loved writing that part as well, it was just too cute haha, and you're very welcome :)