Erwin was nice enough to escort me to the survey corps main building when I asked for my things. Eren stayed behind with a distraught hanji. Although I felt bad for her, I needed my belongings as soon as possible. I had my kunai and other random goods in my pouch.

"Why did you save me." I asked after walking inside the building in silence. I felt so tiny next to him.

"I had a hunch you were going to be an important asset to us." My eyebrow rose.

"Oh? And how's that?"

He glanced at me quickly before turning to a door. " You're combat skills are spectacular, not many women can break a sword with their bare hand." He said in a reserved tone. I couldn't help but smirk proudly. Heh, finally someone recognizes talent when they see it, I mused to myself. So he saved me for my strength. It was almost a selfish act, but given the circumstances of this crazy world, It was reasonable to want as much help as you can get.

"Thank you, I was trained by the hoka- um, the leader of my village, she was remarkably strong." I babbled.

He nodded. The room we entered was very bright in contrast with the other underground rooms. I spotted my things sitting on a white table in the middle. I picked them up. My pouch was open and I could tell someone rummaged through it. Everything was scattered, including a few small scrolls. I picked up my squared pouch with shuriken in it and my headband. Instead of putting it on, I stashed it in my pouch. I wasn't in konoha anymore, I had no use for it here. A pang of guilt washed over me but I shook it away.

"I have talked with the council in court, I made preparations for you." Erwin said casually while leading me out the door. "I convinced them to let you join the survey corps, you will be trained especially by corporal levi, I take it you don't know how to use the 3D maneuver gear."

"Uh no." I replied. Oh no…I was being recruited?! This wasn't part of my plan. I was supposed to come up with a way to go back to my world quickly and lay low, not participate in these people's affairs. Nothing was going my way. " What is it?" I asked. Still, I couldn't refuse. I shut my eyes and clenched my fists. This was temporary. I will go back to konoha, and I won't get too attached to anyone here, I thought sternly. It was a promise.

"You'll see, levi will show you once you get showered and well rested." I nodded and thanked him as he led me to the room that hanji showed eren and I yesterday. It didn't matter If I cleaned or joined this military force gig. I was going to be around the sasuke clone no matter what I thought bitterly.

"So, levi is the corporal, what is that exactly?" I asked erwin before he turned to leave.

"He's the captain of the survey squad." My eyebrows rose. So the sasuke clone was important too.

"But I thought you were the captain." I said in slight confusion.

"Head commander, I'm in charge of the whole corps, Levi runs the squads." He commented. I nodded.

"I see, please excuse me." I said as i entered the room and shut the door behind me.

Thankfully the lamp in the center of the room was lit so I had no trouble making it to the edge of my bed. I opened a nearby drawer and put my pouch in it. I slumped down on my new bed with my arms over my head. Perhaps it wouldn't be so bad to help these people for a little while. As long as I didn't use my strength or run too fast. It was obvious no one was a ninja, people in this world were painfully ordinary. I wasn't even sure if they had chakra. I sighed and turned over on my side. I was going to raise a lot of questions if I started hopping around at alarming heights and punching boulders to break them. I had to pretend to be ordinary until I found my way back to my home. I smiled got up. The bathroom was on my side of the room and I entered it. It was small but comfortable to be in. I turned the water on to hot and closed the door behind me. I stripped and folded my clothes neatly, setting them on the sink. I grimaced as I caught my reflection. My hair was wild and a bit of dirt was visible on my body. I sighed. It was almost embarrassing, cleaning in front of the sasuke number two appearing like this. I slipped inside the running water and smiled contentedly. The hot water felt nice, I really needed a shower. After a few minutes of standing there, I picked up the shampoo sitting in the corner of the tub. Rubbing my head with the scented material, I thought about naruto. When he went back from his mission, he would find me gone. Did tsunade sama even notice my absence yet? Did shikamaru go look for me like he said? Tears welled up in my eyes. I never got to convince sasuke to come back, I never told my parents goodbye before I left to the hokages tower, I never got to taste ichiraku ramen when

I promised the man I would buy some next time. I cried more heavily now. I was glad the water drowned my voice as I sobbed.

Eren wasn't there when I came out. Since I had no clothes I was forced to wear my red top, black shorts, and pale pink skirt again. I did my best to dust them before I put them on. I slumped back down on my bed. I would have to ask someone where I could wash my clothes. My eyes fluttered. I was tired. Hanji kept me and eren up all night yesterday. Sleep was much needed. I put my gloves on top of the drawer and slipped under the sheets. My eyes shut as I drifted off to sleep.

I awoke to the sound of a voice.

"Hey get up."

I sat up and yawned. Rubbing my eyes sleepily I peered up at bright, curious blue eyes. Eren. "Good morning." I muttered groggily. He blinked.

"Uh, Its afternoon, Corporal was looking for you." He said, averting his eyes as I slipped out the sheets. I stared at the lump of clothes he was holding. It was a uniform similar to the one he was wearing now. A short brown vest with long sleeves, a white collar shirt, white pants and some complex belts.

"What is it?" I asked, eyeing the knee-high brown boots sitting on the edge of my bed.

"Levi wants you to put this on, he's expecting the both of us to meet him where the new people train, I know where it is, so you don't have to worry about getting lost." He said softly as I took the clothes from him. "So you're joining the survey corps too."

I smiled at him. "I don't have a choice, erwin dragged me in." I responded. He stared at me for a moment before he gasped.

"S-sorry! I'll wait outside!" He turned quickly, no doubt embarrassed at the awkward atmosphere.

"No that's okay, I can change in the bathroom." I said, halting him. I took the boots and entered the room from which I came from a few hours ago. I stripped and fit into the pants first. "Levi has good size judgment." I muttered. They fit me perfectly, including the shirt. Grabbing the belts, I stared at them for a few minutes. This…will take hours to figure out. I tried to remember how eren had his on. They were wrapped around his legs and torso. I stretched them over my shoulders. "Well I tried." I muttered bitterly. What were these stupid belts for anyway. Opening the door, I stepped out casually. The belts were too tight so moving was a bit awkward. I stopped short when eren appeared in front of me.

"That's not how it goes." He said. He smacked his mouth with his hand in an attempt to hide his laughter.

"I don't know how to put them on!" I whined.

"Here, let me help you." He unlatched the bindings and wrapped them around my legs, buckling them on each side, then stretched them around my waist and over my shoulders. He turned me around to buckle the backside.

"There." He said as he looked over his handiwork.

"Thank you." I said grinning.

I put my vest on and bent to pull my boots up. Eren was like the brother I never had. I didn't feel uncomfortable with him at all. He had a brotherly air about him and I was glad I was taken to that cell. I know I wasn't supposed to get attached, but one person couldn't hurt.

"You're welcome." He replied with a small smile. "We should hurry up and go, corporal might get mad if he waits too long."

"Right." I said, and grabbed my pouch inside my drawer before following him out.

The training field was really spacious and simple. Unlike the training grounds in konoha, these only consisted of six poles and a few scattered stands to stretch. Levi was standing by a table when we approached.

"Hm, what took you so long, never mind, sakura…" He took a moment to observe my new attire. "Good you showered." My eyebrow twitched. He went on. "Today you're going to learn how to balance yourself with the 3D maneuver gear, it's not so hard once you get the hang of it, come." I stared at the two box-like devices with three swords on either side. I was just like what erwin had when I fought him. I followed him to the poles and he mentioned for me to stand in between two of them.

"Eren, help me." Levi instructed. Eren rushed to each side of the poles and tied the ends with some long material. Levi wrapped a hard belt with the material sticking out on each side, around my waist. It appeared to be some special rope.

"Were going to pull you up, your goal is to stay balanced by standing upright. If you achieve this then you'll be ready to use the 3D maneuver gear." I nodded. This was it? It sounded too easy.

"Alright, I'm ready." I spread my legs slightly to take a stance. Walking up a tree without using hands was easy, I could do this without a problem too.

"Pull her up." Levi commanded. Eren pulled at a lever wrapped in the strings attached to the pole. My body levitated and I immediately felt myself wobble. I spread my legs wider and balanced my upper torso by spreading my arms. I stayed upright, although I was shaking slightly. I grinned, My body was in a dumb position but it was working. Levi and eren stared in surprise. Heh, so the sasuke clone had emotions after all.

"No way, you did it, in just your first try too!" Eren yelled smiling. Levi took a moment to recover.

"well, it seems you got the hang of it, put her down." He ordered. Eren obeyed and I struggled to take the belt off once my feet touched the floor. "Leave it on, you're going to need it." He undid the bindings and the rope swiftly retreated into my belt. I followed him to the table.

"This is the 3D maneuver gear, there are two handles attached to your belt.' He pointed to my waist and I noticed two empty sword handles attached to the belt. I took them and pressed the gun-like handle. A gap opened in the middle. "Those are used to retrieve swords from the gear." He took the two boxes and bent to buckle them to each side of my hips and latched a round device on the small of my back. I shivered at the touch. The gear wasn't too heavy, but it wasn't light either. Still, it was comfortable. Standing up, he put his hand over mine and made me hold the empty handle. I wished I had put on my gloves. "Push it." He said smoothly. I did and he lowered my hand to one of the bare swords popping out of the gear. He pushed the opened handle inside one and I released my finger to close it. There was a "Click" and I pulled out a sword. So the swords were suspended inside the gear to avoid having them fall out. It was pretty cool.

"Good, now press the handle again." He pressed his finger over mine, I could feel his shoulder brushing against me.

" I-I can do it!" I stammered and took a step back. He stayed silent. Pressing the handle again, the blade fell.

"Should your sword break for any reason, you can detach it from the handle and attach a new one from the gear." He commented while I gazed at the handle in wonderment.

"Next, those gas tanks on the gear are crucial, it's what keeps you levitating while using it, should you run out you are required to have them replaced immediately or retreat if supplies are out of reach." He walked beside me and pressed the sides of the belt. The wires came flying out causing me to jump in surprise. They came back slowly and levi caught them. He showed me the ends.

"This is what you aim with when levitating with the gear, you make sure to latch on to something, a tree, building, titan, it's extremely sharp so please, try to refrain from aiming at a teammate." He explained while letting go of the pointy wires. They retreated into my belt. I nodded quickly.

"The gas that keeps you levitating comes out through your back." He pointed at the device behind me. He pressed a button on the side of the handle. I didn't even notice it was there. Gas escaped from the device with a whoosh sound. I felt myself lurch forward slightly.

"Since the handle is connected to the gear with this wire, it's the only way to make gas escape from the tanks to levitate." He held a small wire attacked to the boxes. "Do you understand? Got any questions?" He asked. I shook my head. "Good now we can watch you try it."

I gulped and faced a tree. He said to aim with the wires. I turned to eren, who gave me an encouraging nod. Alright, I could do this. I pressed the key button on my side and watched as the wires shot forward and penetrated through the tree. I clutched the handles and pressed. I wasn't prepared for the sudden velocity. I screamed as my body literally flew towards the tree. I was going to crash. Before I could prepare for the impact, the wind hitting my face suddenly died down. I had fallen on my butt, trying to juke the damned tree. I pulled on the wires and shot forward before I stopped midway. Now I was hanging.

"Hey, you didn't do too bad!" Eren yelled, cupping his hands around his mouth. Levi had an annoyed look, like he couldn't believe he was stuck with a noob like me. I kicked my legs.

"Help me down yeah?" I yelled at eren. No way was I letting the stoic asshole touch me again.

After eren helped me down by using his own gear, I tried a few more times. I kind of got the hang of it, except I did horrible when it came to landing. I was a little jealous of eren, he used his gear like it was as easy as breathing air. I hated having to do things the normal way. I was so tempted to use my chakra. I smiled. Now I understood naruto. How he was always envious of sasuke. He ended up coming to me for advice when he couldn't figure out how to walk up a tree. So I did the same, I asked eren for advice, which he gladly gave me. I was determined to master the gear.

" Why don't you take a break with the gear now, I want to see the combat skills erwin has been boasting so much about." Levi exclaimed after an hour of practicing with the gear.

"Alright!" I replied, taking my belt off to set the gear back on the table. All right, finally I get to do something I excelled at. I turned to levi with an evil smile. I was going to knock him into next week. If I accidentally used my chakra, oh well. It was payback for kicking me and stepping on my head, not to mention beating eren mercilessly. He didn't have to do that.

"Alright, eren, go and spar with sakura, I'll observe from right here." Levi said lazily. He leaned back on the table. My jaw dropped.

"Wait a second! You're the one that's supposed to teach me!" I exclaimed loudly. He wasn't getting away that easily.

" I agreed to teach you how the gear works, not how to fight." He said bluntly. I fumed.

"Its alright, I don't mind sakura." Eren said slowly behind me. I turned to him. He was smiling.

I sighed. "Alright, I suppose." I could spar with eren, but the sasuke clone was next.

We both took a stance and circled each other. It was almost like dancing. I tried hard to repress my chakra. I could never forgive myself if I seriously hurt him. He charged first. His foot came down to knock me off balance. Blocking it with my hand, I hopped and did a front flip. He twirled around to land a blow on my shoulder. He was holding back. I smiled inside. Eren didn't want to hurt me either. I had to say, he was a rash fighter. Much like naruto, always charging without thinking. I kicked upwards, which made him stagger backwards. Siezing the chance, I kicked his foot from underneath him and he fell on his butt.

"Why are you hesitating?" I asked playfully. He averted his eyes.

"I don't want to injure you or anything, I mean, your small, I feel like you could break, but you're a lot better than I expected, who taught you how to fight like that?" He asked as I helped him up.

"A very special teacher I had in my village, she taught me how to be strong." I said admiringly. Eren seemed deep in thought.

"Even if I wasn't holding back, I would have still lost, I'm not a very clear thinker when it comes to combat." He stated. Everyone had their strengths and weaknesses. I lacked speed but eren didn't. He lacked fighting skill and I didn't.

" Don't worry, we can accomplish anything if we work as a team, and you can always get better." I stated reassuringly. He peered at me thoughtfully.

"You know you're a lot like annie." He said in a low tone. Before I could ask who that was, levi interrupted us.

"Well said sakura, it's getting late, why don't we head back and get something to eat." He got up and mentioned for me to get the gear.

"Hold it!" I yelled. He stopped. "Spar with me!" I demanded. He turned to me with a blank stare. Now that I actually paid attention to his features, I could see his eyes were a very faint blue. His hair style was much like mine, parted in the middle but a few centimeters to his left. He was a pretty man. He clicked his tongue.

"There's no need, I have more important matters to attend to." He stated bluntly.

"Oh I see, the corporal is too scared to fight me, seeing as I totally put eren down." I smirked. his eyebrow twitched.

"That's not the case." He huffed in annoyance.

"Hm, your backing away from a small girl like me, your shaking in fear, such a boring clean-freak like you belongs in the kitchen, dusting the shelves and…and…." I trailed off nervously. Levi was beyond annoyed. His whole face got dark. He was pissed.

"Fine, eren, step back." I gulped. Maybe I didn't want to spar with him after all. I took a stance as he steadily approached me. I lunged. Running at full speed I swung my fist towards his chest. He dodged. I felt a hand grip my shoulder. I gasped as he swung his foot towards my face. He was fast, really fast. I ducked and did a handstand. I swung my own foot towards his torso. He caught it and twisted. I had no choice but to pull my body up and attempt to forehead him. I barely got his shoulder as he moved away. "Haaaah!" I yelled as I punched at him repeatedly. He was dodging my every move! How could this be! He looked like he wasn't even trying. Fed up, I tackled him. We both went down. I sat up on top of him and felt my arms being pulled up. He had them latched together over my head. I gave a flushed glare. He stared calmly. This was an awkward position. I felt a kick as he pushed me off with his foot. He dusted himself off, all the while muttering how I dirtied his back. That was it. This clean freak had to be punched. I grabbed his leg and with a bit of my chakra, I hurled him upwards, and threw him. His eyes widened as his body flew towards the table. He landed quite gracefully, however and stood on his two feet with only a dirty backside as proof of our match. I ran to him again, my barrage of punches and kicks were all dodged, but I had a trick up my sleeve. I kicked dirt towards him, which he tried to get far away from, then lunged. I spun and did an upper kick. He barely managed to stop it and stumbled. Seeing an open opportunity I sent a punch towards his stomach. Yes, I was going to win! Or not. He quickly spun out of the way and sent a kick to my back. I crashed into the table. Feeling disoriented, I felt arms pick me up. Eren held me upright.

"That was intense, are you okay?" He asked. I winced as I felt a slight pain on my back where the sasuke clone kicked me.

"Y-yeah." I muttered. I lost. I thought I could beat him, but…even though he was ordinary, he was damn good. As much as I hated to admit it, he was better. I too acted too rash, and he took advantage of that.

"That was surprising, this is the first time anyone has gotten close to me in combat, erwin was right, your strong for a small girl." Levi said while patting my head. "Well you got your fight, now lets go so I can shower, we have an expedition tomorrow and there's so little time."

"Expedition?" Eren stated. Levi turned to us.

"I can explain tomorrow." He turned to me and pointed to the gear near the over turned table. "Take the gear with you, it's yours from now on, please take care of it."

I sulked. "Yeah…" I muttered. I went to retrieve it.

"Don't give me that look, if anything you won." Levi stated before turning around and heading to the survey corps building. I blinked in confusion and turned to eren. He shrugged.

"I can't wait for tomorrow, I want to hear more about that expedition." He said as we walked side by side.

"Yeah me too." I whispered. I was still thinking about what levi said. I won? It was obvious I didn't. Maybe what I won was his approval. I sighed. That had to be it.

"Think we'll be included in this trip?" Eren asked. I shrugged.

"Hopefully." We walked on towards the building. Levi walked a few feet ahead of us. I might have won his approval. But he hasn't won mine.