Chapter 6: Tomodachi

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Shingeki no Kyojin

Previously: Petra and Naruto start learning words in the other's language. Eren and Levi join the Special Ops Squad. Eren decides to confirm his curiosity the next day.

"Rasengan!" Naruto slammed Sasuke through the building. He disappeared in the rubble. "I win again! Suck it, Sasuke! Who's the stronger ninja now? That's right! Naruto Uzumaki!"

"Why are you so proud? It's not the real Sasuke, just your shadow clone transformed to look like him."

The jinchūriki ignored him. "Who should I fight next? Captain Yamato? Kakashi-sensei? Or go straight for the big boss: Grandma Tsunade!"

"Neither. You should head back."

Naruto checked the sky. It was beginning to lighten. The sun would rise soon. "They won't be awake for another two hours."

"Levi will be up soon."

"I have a shadow clone. They won't suspect a thing." A pause. "Rivaille."

"Wrong."

"Whatever!" Naruto brought his hands together to create a seal. "I have to fight fifty me!"

"Wait a minute!"

Too late. A small army of fifty, whiskered ninja appeared.

The jinchūriki jumped into the frenzy. It felt good to workout, getting some proper exercise instead of pretending to take a break during the hikes, as if walking through the forest would tire him out. He didn't want to get out of shape and practicing in an abandoned city far away from civilization where no one could get hurt or see him was perfect.

"Victory!" Naruto was grinning, breathing deeply.

"Yes, congratulations. You've completely destroyed the buildings on this block."

"Huh?" He checked his surroundings. "...Oops."

The brick buildings were demolished. And anyone could tell the Titans weren't to blame. They were stupid and did not have the means to cause the kind of wreckage his ninjutsu had. "If we're lucky they'll never come through here. And if they do, well, they'll just blame it on the Titans because who else can they blame? You gotta admit some of them are pretty wacky."

"Time for you to go back."

"Yeah. I know."

The sky was light now. Everything was more visible. He didn't need the torch in his hands. I wish they would invent a flashlight. Carrying around a sick of wood on fire was rather inconvenient. Rivai—Chibi is up. While he couldn't discern the difference in the humans' non-chakra and tell people apart through that, the short corporal was always the only one up so early.

Naruto snuck into his room. As was his usual routine, he fell asleep and slept until Petra came to wake him.

Very sullenly, Naruto took a spoonful of the porridge. "I miss meat. Pork, chicken, sausage, bacon, beef, all of them."

"What's wrong with Naruto?" Eren asked his squad.

"He wants meat," Petra answered.

"Sōsēji," the boy said mournfully.

"Either he's filthy rich or meat is common wherever he came from," Oluo said.

"Eren, after breakfast you'll be assigned rooms to clean," Levi said. "If I find even a speck of dirt you'll redo the entire thing, got it?"

"What about training, sir?"

"That'll come later."

Is he serious? Eren thought incredulously. Based on the expressions the other members of Squad Levi were sporting, he was not. Eren did not want to lose another tooth—even if it would grow back—and opted to keep quiet.

"Petra-nee, oyogu, mizu."

"What's he saying?" Levi asked her.

"I know mizu means water." She reached for her notebook. "I don't know about oyogu."

"Shiwimu," the boy added helpfully.

"Ah, thank you, Naruto."

She wasn't exaggerating. Levi wondered if Naruto could be proficient enough to start speaking in full sentences by the end of the month. "You can't, Petra. You're cleaning, too."

"Sorry, Naruto," she told him apologetically. "No, uh, oh-yo-goo."

His smile fell in disappointment.

"She's a fighter, not a babysitter, and she has to do her own training like you did. She can't watch over you 24/7 and abandon her duties to go splash in the water with you."

"I know."

"We can go later," Petra promised, hoping he picked up her intention from her words.

Once the chores were split up, Naruto opted to play by himself. "Dorō," he told the squad before running off.

Levi turned to Erd for translation. "He's off to draw," his second-in-commander said.

"Has he ever drawn his parents or his home?" Levi asked interestedly.

"Well," Gunther began, "his drawings are, um..."

"Awful?" Oluo provided. "Dumb? So bad that your head will spin trying to make sense?"

"Incomprehensible," Erd finished.

"This is so boring."

"You have no patience."

"How am I supposed to pass time when I don't have people to talk to or...or a book!"

"Ha! When have you ever touched a book in your life without being prompted to?"

"I would now."

"Why don't you go help them clean instead of wasting your time sitting around complaining?"

Naruto hated cleaning. His messy apartment was a testament to that. "Hey, maybe I'll go talk to that Eren kid!"

"Again with the kid thing, kid."

"He's so young, younger than all of them. Maybe he's super strong!" Naruto jumped off the bed and started searching the castle. He ran around and found Gunther and Oluo by sensing them out. "Dammit, where's Eren?" How did these people here find one another without unique chakra signatures? He passed by an open room where Levi was cleaning.

"He'll know. He assigned the rooms," Kurama pointed out.

"Good idea!" Naruto walked up to the man cleaning the window. Levi turned before the boy could open his mouth.

"Fuck!" Levi inched back, nearly jumping out of his skin, heart racing furiously. "How the fuck did you sneak up on me?!" Aside from his mentor, no one had ever managed that feat.

"Focku?" Naruto repeated innocently. Oluo had said that once and given him a wary look afterward and tried to distract him. The boy had a good idea why. "Anata wa warui kobota o itta," he snickered. He knew the corporal had just said a bad word. "Focku!"

"No!" Levi told him sternly.

"Focku!" Naruto ran off.

"Get back here!"

It took over an hour for Levi to "catch" Naruto. He held the boy up by the back of his shirt, carrying him to an unclean room. Levi dropped him unceremoniously on his butt. "Itai," Naruto said and rubbed his behind.

"You." Levi pointed to the boy. "Clean." He pointed to the broom, doing a sweeping motion. "Room." He gestured to the empty room.

"F—"

"Don't you dare, brat."

"No?" Naruto tilted his head. "No focku?"

"No. Now clean!" He left the kid pouting but happy.

He's fast. Levi couldn't believe even at his fastest the kid managed to dodge him with ease. It left him a little unsettled. How do parents deal with more than one of those things? Naruto seemed to have boundless energy. Even after that chase the kid looked like he was ready to run a marathon while he needed to sit down and take a breather. I'm getting too fucking old.

The squad was gathered around the table for lunch. Naruto was happily swinging his legs. "Petra-nee," he said as soon as she took a seat beside him. "Wādo. Atarashī wādo."

"Hm? Wādo." She paused for a second. "Word, yes! You learned a new word!" She took out her book.

"Rivaille!" Naruto pointed, eyes sparkling.

"Captain Levi taught you a new word?"

"That's—" Levi began.

"Rūmu. Kare wa watashi ni heya o kirei ni sa seta. Kare ga warui kotoba o itta nochi."

"Roo-moo," Petra sounded it out as she wrote it down. "How did you teach him, Captain?"

Levi shot Naruto an odd look. Petra was right. He was a peculiar child. "I pointed at him, a broom, and the room and said," he paused for half a second, thinking back, and said: "You, clean, and room."

"It's the same," Eren muttered, shaking his head. It certainly sounded very close. Holy shit. What are the chances?

"Eren, did you say something?" Gunther asked.

"Naruto."

"Hai?"

Eren thought the words over in his head, making sure they were right, before saying, "Boku wa anata no tomodachi."

Immediately the room fell silent, huge eyes and gaping expressions all on him.

Naruto looked dumbstruck, gaping. "Watashi no gengo o dō yatte shitte imasu ka?! Doko de sore o manabimashita ka?! Seinaru kuso!" He pointed at the teen sitting across from him.

"Eren, what did you just say? You know the language? Where did you learn it?" Petra asked, unintentionally repeating the jinchūriki's questions.

"You can understand him?" Levi demanded. "Why didn't you say anything earlier?"

"I don't speak the language," Eren replied hastily. "I only know that one sentence and a few other words."

"How?" Levi asked.

"My dad was a doctor and he treated this couple that lived outside the town. The woman was from the Asian clan, it's her people's language. But Asians have dark hair and dark eyes. That's why I asked what Naruto looked like. He could be mixed—he doesn't look like it, though. It wasn't something I'd heard spoken since they died years ago. So I thought I'd wait and listen to him first, see if it sounded the same before saying something and it turned out to be wrong."

"What's he saying, Kurama?"

"I don't know. Keep quiet and wait."

"And they're dead? You're sure?" Levi stared intently at him.

Eren's jaw clenched. "I saw their bodies. Killed by...criminals."

"Are there anymore people from the Asian clan still around?" Gunther asked.

"Well..." Eren trailed off.

"You know someone?"

"Who is it?"

"Tell us!"

"Eren, it'll make the situation less scary and stressful for Naruto," Petra said sincerely. "If there was someone who could understand him."

"That's the thing, she barely knows the language herself. She learned it as a girl but she hasn't spoken it since she was nine-years-old. I asked her to teach me how to say that one line and a few words when we first met."

"What exactly does it mean?" Erd asked curiously. "What you said."

"I am your friend."

"It's better than nothing," Oluo said. "Look how far Petra managed without knowing a single word. This girl can help us so much, help humanity, once we can under what Naruto says and knows."

"Her name's Mikasa Ackerman," Eren finally admitted.

"Mikasa?" Naruto repeated. "Sounds like a name from back home."

"She might be the one who taught Eren that phrase. Explains why he's not saying anything else," Kurama theorized. "Because he doesn't speak the language himself."

It had to be her, didn't it? Levi resisted the urge to groan. The angry girl who wants to kill me for beating up her boyfriend.

Eren turned to Levi. "Are you going to bring her here, sir?"

"Well, we can't take him to her, obviously."

"I never said anything," Eren said worriedly, "because of how the government might react to that..."

"Relax, your girlfriend will be fine. Naruto's not supposed to be in contact with anyone outside my squad. Which division is she going to join?" Levi already had a guess.

"The Survey Corps."

"Then it shouldn't be a problem. Hange is coming here tomorrow. And she'll be at the ceremony in a few days. She can have the girl brought to the cabin for whatever bullshit excuse she can come up with once Ackerman joins."

Notebook open, Petra had her pen ready to learn new vocabulary. "What other words do you know, Eren?"

Eren smiled sheepishly. "I asked her about curse words but she didn't know any. She told me how to say idiot: baka." The redhead noted it. "Human is ningen."

"Nin-gen," she repeated, writing it down.

"And lastly," he said, his expression dark. "Kyojin."

"Titan?" Petra asked.

"Yeah."

"I got that one from Naruto," she said. Which confirms it.

"That's unmistakable proof," Gunther said excitedly. "It's the same language."

"I wonder how much he knows." Oluo's words made everyone turn to the boy.

What? Naruto thought, puzzled by their reaction. Is there something on my face?

Naruto sat on the wall, staring out at the dark water, enjoying the sound of the ocean waves. "What's out there? Do think there are more people?"

"Maybe."

"We should check it out."

"Because you want to learn more and maybe use that to somehow help these people out, or because another civilization out there might have ramen?"

"Ramen, duh. I could go as myself." His fingers brushed his cheeks, feeling his whiskers. "I'd still have to use ninjutsu to hide these."

"Don't just hide the whiskers. I think it's for the best if you hide your features entirely. It would be easier to blend in if you looked like Sai or Sasuke."

"I guess. Sai would fit in easier—if he wasn't so chalky white."

"You could look like him but with more color, like Sasuke's skin tone."

"Imagine if I went looking like Sakura. Or Hinata or Ino," he snickered. He'd probably have a line of hormonal teenagers falling over themselves to help out if he disguised himself as one of his pretty female friends. Leaning back on his hands, he looked up at the stars. What were his friends doing in the village? Were they worried? Scared? Angry? "I miss them," he said longingly.

"We'll go back. The Kamui Stone is regaining its power every day. There's nothing to do but wait. You just have to be patient."

"I know." Naruto wasn't good at patience. But at least he had the expeditions to look forward to. A chance to maybe save the people who had been so kind to him. He would repay them back in full by protecting them at all costs. A slow smile formed on Naruto's lips. "You said Kamui Stone."

Kurama ignored his words. "We have to think about how much water and rations the clone will need for the journey."

"Why can't I go? I could leave the clone here."

"Because we don't know what's out there. What if there's nothing close by and you run out of food and water? The clone can easily dispel. You'd get stuck and starve. No, it's wiser to send a shadow close into the unknown."

"Okay, fine," Naruto conceded, seeing the logic.

"Besides, who knows when the humans will leave for their mission? You don't want to miss that, do you?"

Naruto perked up. "You're right."

"Of course I am. And along with food and water, the clone will also need a tent against the elements."

The jinchūriki nodded. "Basically all the things I'd take on a mission outside the village."

"Aside from the food, you can find water and the other supplies you need from the abandoned buildings."

Naruto was glad he wouldn't have to steal from the people living behind Wall Rose. He could easily take a few pieces of jewelry from the abandoned shops here and there and leave them in exchange for secretly taking food from the shopkeepers. With the stealth and speed afforded to him thanks to his chakra, acquiring meats and bread from unsuspecting civilians would be like taking candy from a baby.

"Do you really think this Mikasa girl can understand me?" The language barrier—annoying as it could be sometimes—was one of his best safeguards. He didn't like the idea of losing it.

"There's a chance, yes," Kurama said. His answer made Naruto even more nervous. "Don't worry, you're still a kid to them. It'll be easy for you to fake ignorance." He was quite smug about his foresight in his jinchūriki presenting himself as a child working out so well for them.

That eased Naruto's fears a bit. The fox would help him safely answer whatever questions they had for him. Kurama was pretty smart. Long as he followed his guidance, Naruto would continue to survive and stay out of trouble.

"Now, back to the things your clone will need..."

"Who could have killed Sonny and Bean?"

"I don't know."

"I understand how someone can hate Titans so much but this sets humanity back."

"All their actions did was hinder us, blinded by their hate."

"Who's this Soni and Bīn they're been talking about?" Naruto wondered. The terms had been dropped enough for them to figure out they were names. "And where are Chibi and Eren?" He had given up trying to pronounce Levi's name and decided to simply refer to him as "Chibi" instead.

"Who knows? It's got nothing to do with you so it's not important."

The following afternoon, he sneakily went downstairs. While he trained in taijutsu in an empty part of the forest nearby, a clone took his place and napped, dispelling after Naruto returned. The boy followed the not-chakra signals—as he had taken to calling it—and found the team in a classroom-style room.

Man, this takes me back. He observed the room, nostalgic about his Academy days. The team, surrounding the teacher's desk, looked up. "Anata wa nani o yatte iru no?" Naruto asked, despite the fact they couldn't understand and tell him what they were doing. Wandering closer, he saw a sheet of paper.

"Just a minute, Naruto." Gunther placed his finger on his lips and shook his head.

The boy nodded, observing the diagram.

"Do you understand, Eren?" Levi asked after a glance at Naruto aimlessly tracing the formation and everyone's positions for the upcoming expedition.

"I do, sir."

"And you remember what all the flares mean?" Erd asked.

Eren nodded. "Red means Titan spotted, black is for an Abnormal Titan, purple for an emergency, blue to retreat, green means direction change from the commander and the others fire one in reply, and yellow means the mission is done."

"It's an especially important expedition for you," Levi began.

Kurama, learning the language alongside his host, easily recognized the names of colors and a few words here and there. "Naruto, pay close attention. I think they're planning to leave on a mission soon."

"Really?! Yes! Just a few more days, then!"

"It's not a few days. Unlike your missions, where you are occasionally joined by another team, they go out as a whole. And without storage scrolls, I bet they have to organize their supplies properly and taking into account the number of people involved, it must take considerable time planning everything and getting it done."

"Then how much longer?" Naruto was itching to run out and mow down as many Giants as possible.

"Patience. I'm guessing it'll be within the next week or two."

"That's so far away!"

"You'll live."

When they broke up and moved to stand before the blackboard as Levi began to draw, Naruto picked up the paper. "Oh no," Hange said and quickly pulled it out of his reach. "That's not for you to play with."

"Watashi wa shinchō ni naru yo! Tada watashi ni sore o misetekudasai!"

"Sorry, Naruto. This is an important document."

"Dammit!" He'd have to find it later and make his own copy.

"What's with them?" Around Naruto, the members of Squad Levi were sitting at the bench, looking a little down.

Eren and Levi had left earlier with Hange and when they'd returned, Eren looked dejected, bandages wrapped around his hand. Naruto sipped his tea. It was one of the few good things to eat—drink—readily available to everyone. He was barely paying attention to the conversation, daydreaming about Ichiraku's and everything he would order when he returned home.

He was momentarily snapped out of his thoughts when Eren knocked something over, prompting Erd to ask him if he was okay. No one's at the castle. Naruto thought. It was the first perfect time for him to sneak into Levi's office and make a copy of the map.

Jumping out of his seat, he ran off, yelling as he passed by Levi and Petra. "Basurūmu!"

Naruto had barely gone ten feet before he heard the explosion. Snapping his head around, body tensed, his eyes widened at the sight. Hange's squad was still gaping, looking startled.

Erd, Petra, Oluo, and Gunther had their swords out, surrounding Eren.

Levi stood between them and Eren. "Holy crap! What the hell?!" Naruto gaped as Eren seemed to be stuck in a large hand made of red muscles. "What just happened?"

The squad was yelling at Eren.

Kurama observed the scene curiously. "Maybe he can transform into a Giant." The suspicious way the soldiers were eyeing Eren, swords ready, muscles coiled to attack at a moment's notice, the fox couldn't image what else could have triggered such a reaction. And there was the Giant sized hand itself. But it has no skin, he thought. Eren was a lot more interesting all of a sudden and he wanted to see how it would play out.

Naruto, naturally, had to take a closer look and shot forward, rushing by Squad Levi. "Totemo kūru!" He poked it, deaf to the others' words. The red hand felt quite solid. Levi said something but he was ignored as well. Noticing the spoon, the boy jumped up and grabbed the top part of the hand, pulling himself up, inspecting the spoon pinched between the fingers.

Levi grabbed the back of his shirt and lifted him off, setting him down, giving him a stern look that conveyed what his words couldn't. Smiling sheepishly, Naruto rubbed the back of his head. Suddenly, Hange came out of nowhere and he watched the scene play out.

"I don't think normal kids would've reacted the way you did," Kurama said.

"Then I'm a weird kid. Long as they still think I'm a kid, it's fine." Naruto was tempted to touch the hand again after Eren yanked himself out, but Levi stopped him. Good thing too because as soon as Hange touched it, she was burned. Everyone seemed to settle down soon after that.

Eren looked downcast.

Naruto tugged Levi's sleeve. He pointed at the teen. "Eren, kyojin?" The looks on their faces was answer enough for him. They tried to distract him and he played along, knowing what he needed to.

"Can't say I expected this," Kurama said. "He's a Giant. But he's also human."

Naruto wanted to know more but he had acted out of character enough. He'd wait and bring it up again later. Suddenly, he remembered a massive rock in one of the Walls. He hadn't thought much about it at the time but now it made more sense. Did he do that? If Eren really could become as big as the Giants, it was possible. "He's kinda like me."

"In a sense," Kurama agreed, knowing where Naruto's thoughts were headed.

"He's their jinchūriki."

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