Y'all. A crossover pairing I never knew I needed until I actually stumbled across the fandom (oh crackships, such tiny fandoms) and took the time to appreciate it: LeviSaku. The concept of Sakura Haruno just kicking ass in the Survey Corp and pissing off/impressing Levi in the process is just comical to me. It's such a crackship but I LOVE it😂
There’s some language shenanigans in this chapter. Since I don’t speak German or Japanese, it will sound off to the native speaker. I understand that, and though I appreciate corrections, this is fanfiction and not something to be taken seriously. But, without further ado, enjoy!
Farlan continued to sometimes sneak incredulous stares at him as they walked in the Underground streets. When Levi had told him that he wanted to recruit the pink-haired beggar, Farlan laughed nervously, unsure if it was Levi's special brand of humor or he was just messing around with him. Even when Levi had convinced him that he was serious, Farlan still had refused to believe him.
And when Farlan finally had believed him, the barrage of questions came.
"How are you supposed convince her to join us if she can't even speak our language?"
A minor setback, but nothing Levi couldn't surpass.
What Levi couldn't handle was how every person they asked about the girl's whereabouts said they hadn't seen her in two days. Two days? Levi had just encountered the girl yesterday, and nobody had seen her in two days? Levi had gotten so flustered that he had ordered Isabel to find the woman who had come out of the alleyway when they were going inside, hoping she had seen the pink-haired girl.
"And you're sure she exists?" Farlan asked, trying to make it sound like an innocent question but Levi knew he was just questioning his sanity.
Levi didn't even deign to look at him. "For the third time, yes. You even asked Isabel about it and she told you, right?"
"Isabel would do anything to please you, since you saved her and all."
Ah, yes, the unfortunate incident where he looked out for another instead of looking out for himself. Quite a bit uncharacteristic of him, but, Levi reasoned, even he had something against picking on children. And though Isabel was only a couple of years younger than him, she was a child in every sense of the letter.
"Nobody asked you to come. You can go back and I can continue searching. At least then I'll finally have some peace and quiet."
And with that the blond promptly shut up and continued walking.
They continued asking if they had seen the foreign girl, the one who spoke in a strange language, but everyone just shook their heads no.
To add to his frustration, Farlan started getting more visibly annoyed, whether it was with Levi or with the situation Levi didn't know. Even though Farlan had sought Levi to form a partnership focusing on petty crime, Farlan had many unspoken doubts about him, and he wasn't very good at hiding them. To his benefit, their partnership was barely three weeks long, and Isabel had only joined them two weeks ago. They've had good bedlam jobs lately, barring the last one which earned them their bad reputation, but it was still not enough to convince Farlan.
"We're not going to find her," the blond announced with finality, his eyes narrowed. "We're just wasting our time here. Is she really that necessary?"
"We won't die if we don't have her in our team, but her skills would be extremely beneficial. Right now we need all the help we can get. If we can find her."
Levi looked around the marketplace, looking at all the people buying and selling wares, people who swore they had never seen the girl or had only heard of her for two days. Farlan was right; they were wasting their time. At least now that the talked died down they could observe the schedules of their next target, the Military Police.
"You agree with me," Farlan pointed out confidently.
Levi gave him a sideways glance, then nodded. "Yeah, let's go back."
The walk back to their headquarters was shorter than the one to the marketplace, mainly because they didn't have to ask every soul they passed if they had seen or heard of the whereabouts of a foreign girl in a tattered green cloak. Now that he thought about it, making their interest in the girl so obvious might bring some problems later on, especially when it came to negotiations with neighboring gangs. Farlan would be annoyed, since he was the one who handled their group's relations with other factions.
Farlan hadn't even opened the door when Isabel flung it open and step out. "Wow, she was right! You guys are back!"
"She?" both of them asked at the same time.
The redhead grinned, her green eyes tinkling in excitement. She stepped sideways and extended her arm towards inside the house. "Look who I found."
Sitting on his seat was the girl they had been looking for the entire day. Her hood was down, revealing her shocking pink hair, and she was twirling what looked like a knife, her expression betraying an open curiosity.
Levi and Farlan stepped inside their home, a bit wary of the new addition. Isabel pushed them forward and shut the door behind her, destroying any option of an escape.
"You were right! The woman we saw yesterday knew who she was. Quite well, actually. They're in a partnership. The woman, Hilda, draws the attention of an onlooker and Sakura steals their valuables once they turn away. Pretty ingenious, right?"
"Sah-koo-rah," the pink-haired girl enunciated, annoyed. She stood up, walked towards them, and pointed at herself. "Sah-koo-rah."
Farlan pointed at himself and said, "Farlan."
"Farulan," Sakura repeated in her accent.
He did the same. "Levi."
"Levi," she repeated in a surprisingly correct accent.
The girl nodded at both of them, her expression a bit more serious than what he expected. Her face was pale, paler than the usual Underground dweller, and her lips were pink and small. Her eyes were a curious shape and shade of green, not quite as dark as Isabel's, but pale like her skin. She was barely taller than him, which wasn't exactly a feat, which put her on the shorter side of the average.
And her hair. He still couldn't get over the fact someone could have hair like that. It was short, barely reaching her neck, but it was surprisingly clean and well-taken care of, which was a bit of an oddity in the Underground. Whether it was because of a lack of access to or disinterest in hygiene, most Underground dwellers didn't smell or look the best.
Her cleanliness corroborated Isabel's explanation of Sakura's partnership with the woman Hilda. There was no way a street rat could remain so clean. But how did Isabel convince either Sakura or Hilda to break off their deal so Sakura could join them?
"I convinced Hilda to let us borrow Sakura." If Levi didn't know any better, he would've thought she was a mind reader. "Hilda agreed as long as she and Sakura received a portion of the goods we steal," she continued more apprehensively, as she should. Isabel didn't have the power to make those types of bargains for the group. She was young and new and, most importantly, inexperienced. She was a prime target for unfair deals and she had no way of defending herself from them. Levi trusted Farlan because he was shrewd and clever, but Isabel just had a big heart.
At first glance, having a big heart would put Isabel at a stark disadvantage, but if Levi hadn't sensed that heart of hers, he would've never gone out of his way to invite her to the team. And, if he could guess Hilda and Sakura's skill at observation, they too allowed such a deal because they sensed her good will.
"You made a deal without consulting us?" Farlan, though he tried to sound calm, came off as snappish.
Isabel flinched, but she didn't back down, her eyes gaining a determined glint. "I didn't know if Hilda and Sakura were going to leave, so, yeah, I made a deal without consulting you first because I thought this was more important than some stupid power dynamics."
"It's not a power dynamic, Isabel! You're just––"
"I'm just what? Not as smart as you? Yeah, that's true, but that doesn't mean I can't make decisions for myself!"
"You just made a decision for the group!"
Levi sneakily looked at Sakura out of the corner of his eye only to find her already looking at him. When their eyes met, she just smirked, knowing she had beat him in their observation game.
She was good, damn good. And dangerous, oh so very dangerous.
"Farlan, Isabel," he said, his voice a bit louder than usual. "Yes, Farlan is right, you shouldn't have made a deal without consulting us. But Isabel is also right in assuming such a deal wouldn't stay around forever. Your both rights cancel out so the discussion is over." He sent them a rather nasty glare when they both opened their mouths. "We have bigger issues right now."
"Like what?" Farlan asked, exasperated.
"Sakura," Levi called, making sure he tried to get the pronunciation right, "you don't understand German, right?"
The pink-haired girl just stared blankly at him.
"We weren't joking when we said she was a foreigner," Levi continued. "We have our work cut out for us to make Sakura a valuable member."
Farlan frowned heavily. "What's the point of having her as a teammate if she can't really form a part of the team? I don't think she's worth it."
"Oh, she'll show you," Isabel muttered under her breath. "Hilda taught me a command to get Sakura to use her powers. Uh, sha... No... Shi? Yes! Shinabi? No... Ah, yes, Sakura! Shinobi!"
Sakura nodded in understanding and walked towards the wall, then walked up the wall, then started walking on the roof and stopped right above Farlan. She then disappeared from the roof and appeared right behind Farlan, tapped his right shoulder, then disappeared again and reappeared between Farlan and Isabel.
Even though he had seen her do that in the alley, he still felt an intense amazement at her abilities. How did she do it? How was it possible?
He didn't believe in magic, or in the Wall goddesses, but her powers were not normal.
Farlan was less discrete than him in his surprise at her powers. "But... How?"
Sakura must've sensed his wonder, because she crossed her arms and smiled in self-satisfaction, but she soon furrowed her brows in concentration. "Ano... Mizu... Mizu... Wa? Mizu. Wat? Wata?"
"You mean water?"
Her eyes lit up. "Hai! Water!"
Isabel bolted towards their rather small kitchen, rapidly poured water in a glass, and jogged back towards Sakura, who said something foreign but Levi was going to guess it was her version of thank you and promptly started drinking her water. Ari-something, she said.
"Hilda said she was learning German with her. She's apparently a fast learner."
"She has to be. No one around her speaks her language. Adapt or die." He knew the feeling quite well.
Farlan still looked like a fish straight out of water. "Levi... This means that we're rich."
"And once we get our hands in that 3DMG, we will be rich and unstoppable."
“That is so true we could...”
Farlan and Isabel started talking excitedly amongst themselves, but Levi tuned them out in favor of observing the newest member on their team. Sakura stopped drinking the little bit of water left in the glass and stared at him with serious green eyes. She must’ve sensed the hunger in his voice. That could be bad. So far, she hadn’t displayed signs of egotism. The only time she showed off was because Isabel asked her to show off.
Only fools would turn down a chance to join Levi in one of the Underground biggest heists, but Sakura was powerful enough to afford choosing who to work with without negative repercussions, if her partnership with Hilda was of any indication.
But she just smirked at him and started drinking her water again, green eyes so hungry that could rival his own.
He still wasn’t used to sharing his home with Isabel and Farlan. It was different than what he usually did, allowing people into his life. But they had been right. He had acquired too many enemies, so many that he had to move from the part of the Underground he originated from. Isabel and Farlan acted as his moral compass, however weak it was, to prevent them from getting too many enemies.
Quite frankly, he was still surprised they had agreed to be a part of his plan to steal a couple of 3DMG they saw the stupid Military Police officers wearing. Having something like that would increase the amount of food and coveted things they could steal. Because that’s what he had become, a thief. To go from killer to thief was a nice upgrade, but falling back to old habits proved harder than usual. Why steal a couple of things when you could kill someone and steal everything?
But that would only lead back to his old dilemma of having to move after acquiring quite the fanbase.
He finished sweeping the room, admiring the less dusty floorboards. They had a humble home, a simple one room apartment with two bunk beds and a mattress on the floor. As an added bonus they had a square wooden table with four seats and a shelf to store some leftover food that didn’t easily spoil.
Cleaning was always his responsibility, something he considered sharing with those two but they could never do the job right. Sure, he could teach them how to clean properly, but that could end up being a waste of time if they are not good at using the 3DMG. That small reason had gotten them together, and that small reason could tear them apart.
The door opened, and his muscles immediately tightened, expecting a fight. When he saw his redhead teammate he visibly relaxed, though not completely. Just because Isabel wasn’t an enemy didn’t mean enemies couldn’t easily come in too. But maybe he was being paranoid.
“Morning, Levi!” Isabel greeted, her morning cheer not affected by his dark mood. She closed the door behind her and took a seat, careful to avoid the pile of dirt Levi had on the floor.
He placed the broom against the wall and took a seat on the table . “Why back so early? I thought it would take you longer to find out more about those schedules.”
Isabel flinched slightly and coughed. “Well, yeah, about that… The Underground is more excited today than usual, so nobody wants to talk to me.”
Levi raised an eyebrow. The Underground was used to seeing shit, and the process to becoming desensitized was a short one in their world. “What’s going on?”
“Someone found a wounded stranger in an alleyway. Word is she can’t speak our language, and can’t do anything other than lean against the wall.”
There usually weren’t many strangers in the Underground. People were either born to a life of misery here or banished for committing heinous crimes, never to reintegrate with society ever again. After all, nobody here had papers saying they belonged to one of the three human territories. They might as well not exist.
He grunted in annoyance. “How do we get rid of this problem?”
“By problem do you mean her?”
“Of course.”
Isabel frowned. “We can’t just kill her, Levi.”
“She’s a hindrance to our plans. I’m sure she doesn’t mean to get so much attention, but she does, and we must take care of that.”
Her green eyes held so much disappointment that had she been something closer than a business partner he would be ashamed. “Talk will die down in a day or two. Can’t we wait for a single day? She’s already weak enough that anyone can take advantage of her and she can’t do anything about it.”
Levi was a piece of shit, he would be the first to admit that, but he wasn’t that big of a piece of shit to take advantage of someone like that. Sure, he had considered killing her, which now that he thought about it would cause an uproar so he wouldn’t be able to save time anyway, but he would never do something like that.
Murderers had standards.
He huffed in annoyance; now he was a damned hypocrite.
“So what do you suggest we do?”
Isabel’s face perked up in surprise. “You’ve never asked for my opinion before.”
“Any idea I give will probably be shitty since I’m not a girl, so I’m deferring to you.”
She cocked her head in confusion. “That’s… actually nice.”
“So do you have any ideas or not?”
“Uh, yeah, um, why don’t we check her out, see what she’s like? Maybe we can nurse her back to health since no one else will do it?”
Levi raised his eyebrows. “Nurse her back to health? Why would we waste our resources on her?”
“Our group has a bad rep right now. Sure, everyone in the Underground is a thief in one way or another, but if people keep thinking we give nothing back they’ll come after us.”
“They’ll chase us away even if we don’t kill anyone?”
Isabel nodded grimly. “You can’t just steal from the community and never give back. Then the community will never allow us to steal from them again.”
“And you think that being good caretakers will increase the public opinion of our little operation?”
“I do think so. I’m sure Farlan would agree with me too.”
The Underground, in that case, was an even bigger hypocrite than he was. Everyone stole from everyone, but if you stole too much people would stop letting you live with them and would drive you out. Sure, they could go to an area of the Underground where nobody gave a shit, the area he had come from originally, but it was too dangerous for him and his two partners. Levi’s face was plastered in many walls and neither Isabel nor Farlan could survive a day there without being killed.
So he had to play with the rules of this part of the Underground, the only part of the Underground the Military Police will patrol. Even they don’t dare go any further for their own safety.
“Where is she?”
“In an alley by the lower apartments, close to the dumpster.”
“Fine, let’s go see how bad she is. But we can’t afford to look weak either, Isabel. If she’s a lost cause then we leave her there.”
Isabel didn’t have a chance to respond, being cut off by Levi’s abrupt exit. She awkwardly caught up to him, walking behind him to avoid looking at him in the eye. He was a famed killer, survivor of the most dangerous areas of the Underground. Farlan told her he had changed, that something had changed him, and that’s why he was allowed to reside in this part of the Underground without much retaliation from the inhabitants.
Still, this was the famed Levi, the Ripper’s Shadow, for he had grown up with Kenny the Ripper’s influence. Farlan had confided in her that he had killed people in ways that would keep her up at night. When she had demanded how Farlan could guarantee their safety, he just told her to trust him.
But how could she trust someone she was scared of being around?
Besides, he was so cold. The wounded girl must be so scared, being in such a dangerous place, Isabel herself knew how scary the Underground could be for a defenseless person, and Levi had just thought about killing her out of convenience. He thought two days’ time was worth more than her life! Had he really changed?
If he left her to die, would he leave Isabel to die too?
Levi led her down a series of shortcuts to minimize the amount of people who saw them. He was paranoid that if people recognized them, their attempts to steal would suffer. Everyone was a thief in the Underground, so everyone expected it, but that didn’t mean they had to let it happen. Anyone tried to prevent theft, and recognizing people was the first step.
They reached the alley, but a woman was obstructing the entrance. She looked at the alley with pity, and she almost stepped inside, but she noticed their presence. As soon as her eyes landed on Levi, she jumped slightly and Isabel could feel the need to scurry off, but she stomped her foot slightly.
“Now you don’t bother that girl. She has nothing to give.”
Levi’s eyes widened. Well, that was a new one. A stranger looking out for another stranger, in the Underground? Now there must be something special about her to elicit such a response. Maybe she was close to death. That usually got the strongest reactions out of people.
“We won’t give her trouble, ma’am,” Isabel replied, her voice confident.
The woman looked at her disapprovingly, but nodded and left them. To think that he had such an effect that the older woman even distrusted Isabel for hanging around Levi. Farlan and Isabel had taken quite the risk in partnering up with him.
He entered the alley and saw a figure seating against the wall. She wore a tattered brown cloak with the hood up, preventing anyone from seeing her. Her legs were extended, revealing bruised skin, and strange open-toed shoes. He heard her shallow breaths and relaxed slightly.
Levi looked back at Isabel and she nodded her encouragement. He absentmindedly brushed his hand against the back pocket in his pants where his favorite switchblade was. He was sure the girl would offer him no trouble, but just in case it didn’t hurt to be careful.
“Do you know where you are?” Levi asked, trying to make his voice as non-threatening as possible.
She continued breathing and offered no response.
Levi looked at Isabel and she nodded. She stayed in the entrance of the alley and Levi risked closing the distance until he was arm’s length away.
“Do you know what happened to land yourself here?” he asked again.
She whispered in a foreign language that Levi didn’t even know existed.
That girl was doomed. Wounded, and couldn’t communicate? The people who visited her either didn’t know or had tried to hide her secret, prolonging her life, but for what purpose? Who knew how long she could last like this? How can anyone help her if she can’t even say what’s wrong with her? He could shorten her agony, but then word would spread around that he had killed the Underground’s kicked puppy and that wouldn’t fly with anyone.
“What are we gonna do?” Isabel had moved next to him, leaving their easiest escape route unprotected, but seeing as the wounded girl wasn’t a threat at all he didn’t care. “She can’t speak.”
“She can speak, we just don’t understand her, and she doesn’t understand us. We can’t do anything for her. Maybe we can bring her some bread and purified water so at least she doesn’t die of starvation or dehydration, but we can’t help her, Isabel. It would be too much.”
Isabel bit her lip, her eyes troubled, but nodded. Levi knew that she had been a street rat until Farlan had found her and taken her in. She was probably expecting the same type of luck for the wounded girl, but even she probably knew the girl would not receive the same fate from anyone.
There was luck, and then there were miracles, and miracles didn’t happen in the Underground.
“Let’s go get the food.” He hesitated before putting a hand on her shoulder, and though she initially flinched, she offered him a small smile when she realized he was comforting her.
They turned away from the girl and started walking when he felt a slight wind behind him. He immediately drew his switchblade and turned around to stab, only to see a cloaked figure duck, step back, and do a neat backflip to put some distance between them.
The motion called the hood of the girl to fall, revealing long pink hair and annoyed green eyes. She growled something in that language of hers and disappeared before their very eyes, leaving only wind behind.
She had just tried to rob them, but he was fascinated with her power and her strategy. Her wounded state was a ruse for people to either give her things or steal from them. Either way, she always received something from every visit.
“Levi, I’m so sorry! I didn’t know that––“
“No, don’t apologize. We just found the person who will make us rich.”
Details haven't been finalized but I know for sure that in a week from today I'll publish the first chapter of The Vessel AU, titled Rosette, where she lands in the underground. It is inspired by the A Choice With No Regrets spinoff, since its the only piece of semi-canon information that we have before Levi joins the Survey Corps. Sakura can't speak German (and I don't know how to speak Japanese or German) so it will be more descriptive to make up for the lack of dialogue between the two main characters. This is also from Levi's point of view exclusively. It is not plot focused like The Vessel is. Instead it will focus on character interactions and relationships exclusively. So there will be little spoilers for both Naruto, SnK, and The Vessel. The Naruto one is still in the works as I don't know exactly where to start but it will be published.
This blog’s foremost purpose is to better connect myself with the readers. I think reviews are great so that everyone can see what you think about chapters, but for certain questions about miscellaneous stuff like characterization or theories or other stuff this is the place for you to ask! Please, feel free to post and ask questions!
Also I’ll be reblogging some artwork I find cute or writing drabbles for certain scenarios, AU to the story or not.
My current idea is to make two Tumblr-exclusive mini-series, one of them about the Naruto world The Vessel is based on and another AU where instead of being found by Helsa, Sakura is found by the underground trio: Isabel, Levi, and Farlan. I’ll be also be taking requests for other series so stick around!
