Naruto Uzumaki was falling, and he knew he had seconds to complete his summoning ritual. His hands wove the signs fast as he could. "C'mon, work!" He was gathering speed now. "Give me your chakra as rent!" There was a chime and a massive puff of smoke and..."Huh?!" There was nothing below him and he felt a sinking pit in his belly until from the corner of his eye, a moving figure caught Naruto's attention. As he looked closer, he noted the short blonde hair and the face, dripping blood from no discernible source as they both fell.
Then the girl's head snapped up, allowing him to see the wings on her jacket lapel and the dark blue eyes and the large scrape across her forehead. What- He had no more time to think as she would appear to have finished scanning the surroundings and twisted her hips mid air, squeezing a trigger on one of the blades she had. A sort of hook shot from her left side and buried itself in one of the spikes protruding from the wall, jerking her to a stop and she grabbed Naruto with her free hand. His shoulder was also nearly wrenched from its socket. She glanced over his features, taking them in before she looked up and began to shoot off other hooks, climbing with him like it was almost nothing.
She's not much older than me, if at all. Yet she's hauling us both up this uneven terrain like it's nothing. Naruto finally found his voice. "Eh?! Who the hell are you?!"
"Shhhh." The girl tried to shut him up, making slow progress with him in her arms. "If they hear us when I'm this close to the top, they might grab us and crush us before we can get to safety. We'll get your injuries treated somewhere. Just shut up if you want to live."
Who will grab us? Naruto began to wonder if he was being kidnapped and felt more grateful than ever that Pervy Sage was probably waiting just on the lip of the canyon. She reached close enough to throw him over the edge and then slowly but surely pulled herself into view, looking about. "This...isn't Trost district. Or Shiganshina."
She glanced down at Naruto. "What did you do?"
x
Runa Stadler had been falling to her death one moment, seconds from being wrapped in big fingers bent on her death, and the next she was falling...Somewhere else. Glancing to her left she found she also wasn't alone. There was a boy shouting at her, also falling. Ignoring his obnoxious orange clothing, she did a quick scan of the environment before making a split second decision, shooting an anchor into one of the protrusions above her and grabbing the boy as he fell past. She shushed him, listening for the footfalls of approaching titans and trying to scale the wall quickly. I should be dead. Maybe I actually still am. Reaching the top, she tossed the other kid over and pulled herself up.
Then she glanced down at the other blonde who was still shorter than her at his full height. "What did you do?" Her arms crossed as she put her titan killing blades back in the holsters. An overwhelming wave of sickness, pain, and fatigue was rolling through her and Runa wasn't sure how much longer she could keep standing.
"I could ask you the same thing." The boy was looking at her suspiciously up and down. "You sure aren't a toad."
"Of course not. I just...what?!" Runa felt incredulous. Either he's high or I'm just dead and this is my afterlife. Great. I was hoping for black nothingness. She turned for the nearest tree and started climbing it with ease.
"What are you doing now?"
Runa didn't even look back at him when she spoke. "Taking shelter until I can catch my breath."
"Taking shelter from what?" Asked the fully grown man already sitting in the tree Runa was hoisting herself up into.
Unphased, she pulled herself up. "From the titans of course."
"Titans?" He asked, his face a perplexed mask of polite puzzlement.
Runa gauged him for a long moment but it really seemed like he had no idea what she was talking about. So I'm actually dead, then. "Nevermind, I guess." She felt a little lost. She'd succeeded at her attempt to end it all apparently. So where was here, then?
"You alright kid? You look like you've seen a ghost." The older man was giving her a look of deep concern now. "When was the last time you ate a good meal or slept?"
"Can't remember." She said, leaning back against the trunk of the tree, suddenly feeling a little dizzy. "A week, maybe. Hard to do either of those when you're fighting for your life."
"Let me-" She heard him rustling around in a bag nearby, but couldn't bring herself to even turn her head. Runa let her eyes close. If they were going to kill her, they'd have done it already surely. With her eyelids closing almost on their own, Runa could feel her grip on consciousness slipping fast. Please don't be killers.
x
"Runa, if we don't make it out of here-" Runa hushed her squad mate, hands pressed gently over her mouth.
"Shhhh. Greta, it will be alright. We'll make it through the night and tomorrow you can join the garrison." Greta looked up from the twisted mess of a leg out of which her bones were jutting. She peered into Runa's eyes with her own chocolate orbs and shook her head.
"No, Runa. I won't." She gripped Runa with both hands. "Now what you're going to do is take my extra blades and gas cannisters and you're going to meet up with the rest of our squad and make sure you get out."
"Greta please let me-"
"Runa, I can't work a farm like this. I'll never have the military job I wanted. Worse I can't even run away on my own. Now, I'm not going to scream for a titan when you leave... But I'll die soon enough on my own. Get." Greta handed her the equipment she'd spoken of. "Live, damn it."
x
Runa cracked her eyes open to see a sterile room with rows of beds and curtains. As she was the only occupant, she could see everything. There was a flicker of movement from the corner of Runa's eyes and she glanced toward the window where there sat the man who'd been in the tree. "W-where is this? This isn't in any of the districts I've ever seen." She looked at his oddly spiky, massive white hair and his strange attire. What, is Grandpa some kind of ninja? Those are for kids who don't know anything yet.
"This is Konoha, the Hidden Leaf Village." He glanced up from a book he was scrawling notes in. "My name is Jiraiya. I brought you here when you fainted. You're being treated for starvation and fatigue at our hospital." He spoke quietly as if he was afraid of scaring off a startled deer.
"Konoha? That's..." Runa pursed her lips, confusion rolling through her head. You killed yourself, remember? None of this is real. A spike of ice stabbed into Runa's stomach. Right. This is some fucked up dream. If I hadn't died, it might make a great novel series. I...
"Are you alright?" Jiraiya asked. "You went somewhere for a moment, there."
"Yes." Runa said, automatically. It was such a force of habit to pretend everything was perfectly fine at this point that she didn't even think before she answered. But you aren't.
Jiraiya didn't relax, but his face did soften a little. Is that pity? I don't need pity. I'm beyond that now. "If you don't mind, there a couple of people who really need to see you before we can start getting you settled in." Runa almost chuckled, instead barely holding back and nodding her consent. The door opened as if by his whim, admitting another man with a long blonde ponytail. He was younger than Jiraiya and had a very careful manner about him.
Despite his cautious demeanor, he approached with more softness to him than Jiraiya. "Hello, young one. My name is Inoichi Yamanaka. I know this must be very confusing for you, but I have a few questions and a procedure I need to perform."
Runa shrugged, definitely confused and weary but understanding. Military rules are the same anywhere you go, after all. Though, Inoichi also shares Jiraiya's perplexing get up. They had same leaf-shaped symbol on their headbands, which Runa reasoned was because of the village name. "I'm not a child." She prefaced her reply. "Yes, I'm confused. No, I don't care if you do what you have to." Runa hesitated a bit. "Where's my gear?"
"It will be returned in due time." Inoichi pulled up a chair to the side of her bed and Runa noted for the first time the lines pumping medicine into her arm. She frowned at the sight. "It's just a solution to combat your advanced dehydration. Your kidneys weren't going to function for much longer." Runa relaxed, making the tension leave her body. She felt all too well that she was holding none of the cards here and at least wanted to maintain control of herself. "My first question...Who are you?"
"Runa Lucia Stadler, member of the 104th Training Corp until I graduated and chose service in the Survey Corps about a week and a half ago. Assuming I haven't been passed out for an extended period of time, that is." She got a good look at Inoichi as he was leaning forward in his seat, carefully engaged with her. He had light green eyes and pieces of hair, jutting down from both sides of his head where they spilled over the top of his headband. He was wearing a green vest that Runa would wager was meant to protect from high speed projectiles. Ah, they thought about making us wear something like that in the military but it was determined to be a little to heavy to be compensated for with the omni-directional gear.
"You're so-" Inoichi stopped himself. "You're a military woman at your age?"
"Yes." She said shortly. "I got into service early as I had access to training people who aren't second-generation military don't. It also didn't hurt that my parents were rather rich. They made sure I was taught, and that I had a way in when I wanted it."
"Where are you from, Stadler?" He was careful, obviously trying not to offend.
"You're older than me, and seem to have more rank. Just call me Runa or Runa Lucia, please." She thought on his question a moment. "I'm from Stohess District, on the east edge of Wall Sina." Runa waited, watching Inoichi take mental note of everything she said. There's a lot more involved in being dead than I thought there'd be.
"Just the procedure now." He seemed to be thinking about something. "What sort of chakra techniques did you have in Stohess?"
Runa stared blankly, just shaking her head and shrugging. She had no clue. "Right." Inoichi looked a little uncomfortable. "If I had the means to look in your head and make sure you aren't a threat to us, how would you feel about that?"
"Honestly not too good, sir. You could be an enemy of my people for all I know. In which case, I'm probably already done for. That said, it goes against all my training to just...let something like that happen. Luckily, things like that don't happen outside of scientific or paranormal fiction, do they?" Runa watched him closely and her stomach dropped a little. Fuck. It was framed as a hypothetical, but he was serious. Mr. Yamanaka believes he can do what he said. How much more unhinged are things going to get?
"Can I show you something and have you remain calm?" Inoichi was standing, waiting on her response. Runa shrugged then changed her mind and nodded. His feet began to glow an odd blue color and alarm rose in her veins. Is he a titan shifter like Eren? Why here?! Inoichi turned toward the wall, placed a foot on it and then...walked up it and turned again until he stood on the ceiling. "Proof that wherever you came from, here isn't there and it's far from science fiction. Now the procedure is like this-"
"Ah." Runa said calmly, and tore the tube from her arm. Then she leapt from her bed and bolted for the door. What the hell? I have to get out of here, now!