Disclaimer: As it just so happens, I do not own either Naruto or Fullmetal Alchemist.

A/N: So suddenly I find myself interested in Fullmetal Alchemist again. And I've been tempted to rewrite this story for a while now anyway. It was my first real successful piece on this website, but it's been a while since I've even looked at it, and eventually I just gave up.

Re-reading the story I had published so long ago, I found so many mistakes that I just wanted to smack myself (really hard) for letting it stay posted up on the internet for so long. It would almost be criminal not to be rewriting it.

So, anyway, if you read the last version of it, and enjoyed it, please read this one for my sanity's sake. Or, if you're completely new to the story and have no idea what I'm talking about, just read and enjoy =)

It was late. The soft glow of the full moon beat down upon him mockingly, almost as if it were not soft at all. Clearly visible in the night was Sasuke Uchiha's pale form, standing exhausted amongst the trees of the dense forest outside of Konoha. Breathing hard, he paused for a moment in what he was doing. This night, like many others before it, Sasuke had stayed out long after sunset, training his body and mind.

Sasuke had set clever traps for unsuspecting animals (completely harmless though, of course), had thrown choice weapons at small, precise targets, such as individual leaves on a tree or bush. His latest training method - or at least, the method that he was using tonight - was to throw so accurately while standing upside down from a tree branch. It wasn't nearly as difficult as one would think, but fun somehow, and it was practice all the same.

Sasuke was also very much aware of his little audience tonight. He hadn't once glanced their way, but he knew that someone was hiding in the trees, watching him. He could feel their eyes on his back, like a person would feel if they had a spotlight thrown on them. However, the two who were watching - for there were only two - obviously weren't ninja, and if they were, they weren't very good ones. It was as if they weren't even bothering to conceal themselves. Their breathing and footsteps were loud, and they even whispered quietly to one another, thinking that Sasuke wouldn't hear. Sasuke knew that at least no ninja from the Hidden Leaf Village would be so careless.

Without looking in the direction of the two hiding in the brush, Sasuke took a long drink from his canteen, and, simultaneously and almost carelessly, threw a kunai in the direction of said audience. To his amusement, he heard a short, startled shriek from the two's hiding place. "You can come out now," Sasuke said once he finally put down his canteen. Silently he peeled off his sweat-soaked shirt. It was annoying the way clothing clung to his body once he started training.

The leaves of a bush rustled noisily as a boy, about Sasuke's age from the looks of him, pushed his way into Sasuke's view. The guy winced and grumbled beneath his breath as he got snagged by tree limbs and thorns and bush snarls. Definitely not a ninja.

The guy was wearing some of the strangest clothes that Sasuke had ever seen - a crimson red coat, and underneath an outfit of complete black. And white gloves, even in the heat of the night in the forest. "You don't gotta be so rude about it," the boy snapped in a loud voice that sounded like it was used to complaining. Apparently Sasuke had made him angry. It was then that Sasuke saw, with approval, that the kunai he had thrown had managed to snip off about half the guy's ponytail. He needed a cut anyway, he thought with a smirk.

The boy "hmphed" as he shook his hair loose from it's ponytail, and began to braid. "Looks like I'll have to get used to wearing it the old way," he commented, tossing the short braid over his shoulder. As he spoke, another boy stumbled his way into view. He looked too much like the first guy for Sasuke to be able to tell them apart easily, but he seemed a little younger anyway, if not much shorter. This one seemed to have less attitude than the first. He had an honest looking face.

"Who are you?" Sasuke asked as he eyed the younger one. That one had his hair up in a ponytail too, like the first one had before Sasuke snipped it. It was the same exact color of golden brown. His clothes were identical to the other guy's too, even down to the white gloves.

Suddenly, a grin bloomed on the older one's face. "Edward Elric," he answered proudly, pointing a thumb at himself. "The Fullmetal Alchemist. And this here is my brother, Al. We're uh... kind of lost." His grin didn't slip as he scratched the back of his head nervously.

Sasuke hadn't understood what the guy had said about metal. He'd caught their names though. Edward, and Al. The younger one, Al, bowed apologetically then. "Sorry if we're causing you any trouble, but we are lost. Do you think you could show us the way to the nearest town?"

Sasuke studied the two for a moment. Edward, the older guy, looked like an arrogant prick, but he seemed harmless enough. His brother just looked nice. Sasuke shrugged. "Sure," he replied, throwing his damp shirt over his shoulder. "I'll take you to the Leaf Village." Forget asking why they were lost. He didn't really care what they were doing or where they were headed. Sasuke was ready to go home and get a few hours of sleep before sunrise.

"Thank you," Al said, bowing again.

As they walked, the two guys trailing Sasuke seemed to feel the need to fill the silence with conversation. Most people felt that need, Sasuke reminded himself, even as he felt slightly annoyed - yeah, most people except for him. Lucky for him that the two strangers were saving most of their breath for maneuvering through the forest rather than on idle talking. Of course, Sasuke didn't have to walk - even so, he had no trouble finding his way through the trees and around the plants and tall grass. If it weren't for the two behind him holding him up, he'd be back in the village in no time. But as it was, it didn't look like there was any way Edward and Al could fly through the treetops like Sasuke could.

"Hey," Edward panted, catching up with him a little. "You never told us your name." He struggled to walk at Sasuke's side, but was apparently bewildered at how Sasuke managed to walk so effortlessly while he himself continued to grow tired and out of breath. His brother, still trailing behind them, didn't seem to be in much better shape.

"Sasuke Uchiha," he replied shortly. He didn't feel like talking with these two, he just wanted to get back home now.

The younger brother had apparently heard, because after a moment he called, "Thank you for showing us the way, Sasuke-san."

Sasuke shrugged, not caring if the boy could see the gesture. "Hey," Edward said again, still breathing heavily. He looked like he was starting to sweat through his coat. Sasuke wondered why he didn't just take it off already. "Isn't there like a... path or a road or something around here?"

Feeling the strain on his nerves, Sasuke didn't particularly care about being generous. "Can't handle a few trees?" he asked smoothly. He hadn't really meant for it to sound so snide, but Sasuke Uchiha was just not a people-person.

Edward grinned. "Nah, this is nothin'. Once you've walked through the desert as much as me and Al have, other places don't seem so bad in comparison." He paused to catch his breath, and smacked a bush out of the way with his arm. He was starting to get frustrated with the forest scenery, Sasuke could tell. "It's pretty hot out here though."

Sasuke gave a heavy sigh and headed in the direction of the road back to Konoha. At least it would be faster traveling than this - he didn't have enough patience in his body to keep up with the slow pace of these travelers. After a few minutes, they did reach the road, and as Sasuke had feared, the lack of having to struggle so hard through the trees gave the boys more incentive to talk. "So, we were watching you a minute ago..." Edward started. "What was that you were doing? Hanging upside down from trees? How'd you do that?"

"Ed," Al hissed. "That's rude."

Sasuke glanced back at the two of them. "Chakra control," he said, his brow furrowed. Most ordinary people, the ones who didn't attend the Ninja Academy, didn't understand the functions of chakra control, but they still had seen that ninja could do such things. People new that ninja could walk up walls if they wanted, even if they didn't understand why. Despite himself, Sasuke asked, "Where are you from?" He watched from over his shoulder as Ed and Al shared a look. Then Edward looked back at him with another grin, rubbing the back of his head again. "Kind of hard to say," the boy said with a little laugh.

"...I see."

Behind his back, Edward and Al shared another look, one that spoke volumes.

"You two aren't ninja," Sasuke noted, glancing over his shoulder at them.

"Ninja?" Edward demanded with an incredulous sort of laugh. "No way! We're alchemists." He jabbed a thumb at his own chest.

"Al...chemists?" Sasuke asked, tasting the word. He'd never heard of any such thing.

"Yeah," Edward sighed, but then he changed the subject. "So, where are we anyway?" Edward asked. "What's the name of this town you're taking us to?"

"Konoha. The Hidden Leaf Village. How did you get so far out here not knowing where you were?" The two of them must have taken it as a rhetorical question, because neither of them answered.

It was late, and the soft glow of the full moon filled Hokage Tsunade's office with light. The candles spread out on the desk in front of her had been giving her a headache, so she'd blown them all out. It hurt her eyes too much to read and work by that kind of light. Still, it wasn't as if she had much more of a choice. She was the Hokage, after all. She had things to do, and the sun was unmerciful towards this fact, seeing as it still went down at the same time every single day. I can't believe I actually agreed to do this, she thought with a weary sigh. She rubbed her temple again, knowing full well that it wouldn't help with the headache. She was starting to wish that she hadn't told Shizune to go on home and get some sleep. How many hours ago had that been? Two? Three? Maybe she should just sneak off and go home, too. Leave the work for in the morning.

Tsunade didn't realize that she had dozed off until a sudden important-sounding knock came at the door, and she jerked awake. One of the papers she had been working on was now stuck to her face from sweat. It had been hot out lately. Slightly annoyed at herself, and even more annoyed at whoever was interrupting her at this time of the night, she pulled the paper from her face and barked, "Come in!"

A wide-eyed ninja (whose name she was probably supposed to know but at the moment couldn't remember) stepped into the room. It wasn't until the door opened that Tsunade began to hear the ruckus going on outside, just a room away from her office. Boys shouting. They had barged in on her for this? "Uh... I apologize, Hokage-sama. It's just... well, we found Sasuke Uchiha and some strangers fighting in the middle of the village and... well it took a lot of us to pull them apart, and we didn't know what to do with them so..."

Tsunade cut him off. "So you brought them to me?" she demanded, feeling an angry vein beginning to pulse on her forehead. Or maybe that was just the headache. Through clenched teeth she said, "Bring them in."

It was surprising how many ninja filed into her office then - four of them on each boy, though one of the strangers at least, looked as if he wasn't putting up much of a fight. Sasuke, on the other hand, and the other unfamiliar boy were seemingly doing everything they could to get at each others throats. Sasuke had a nasty cut on his forehead, and they were both already pretty bruised up. As the three boys were forced into the room, Tsunade could feel her temper rising. "I'll kill you!" that golden haired boy was screaming, with his limbs flailing around in the air as he tried to get away from the men holding him back.

Sasuke, a vein on his own forehead throbbing, crossed his arms and didn't fight the ninja who had a hold on him. He looked darkly away from the stranger and said, "I'd like to see you try."

"Enough of this!" Tsunade ordered, slamming her hands down on the table as she stood. Silence followed for just a second, and then the stranger who had been yelling at Sasuke demanded bluntly, "And who is this old bat?"

Tsunade snapped.

Calmly, with an annoyed smile on her face, she sat back down in her seat, and ever so politely asked the ninja gathered 'round if they would leave the room. She wondered what they heard after the door shut behind them - whispers would go around the entire village come morning, with rumors about how two strange boys along with Sasuke Uchiha had been taken into the Hokage's office and then relentlessly beaten black and blue.

"Now," she said business-like when she was finished with the three of them. The quiet stranger she hadn't roughed up too bad, but she had made sure too throw in an extra punch or two toward the other. Sasuke should know better than fighting in the village, so she'd given him a few little somethings to think about as well. For the most part, the one quiet stranger stayed in the back, cringing at the beating given to Sasuke and the other. Smart boy. "What is all this about?"

Sasuke and the stranger - both standing before her with their heads bowed, sulking like children - both looked up and opened their mouths to speak at once. She interrupted them before either of them had the chance. "Ah. I wasn't asking you. I was asking him." She gestured to the boy still standing a little way behind the other two - he seemed to be trying to stay out of sight. Tsunade smiled sweetly at him, but all things considered it probably just scared him. "What's your name?" she asked.

"Uh...uh... I'm Alphonse." He stepped up next to the other boy, and for the first time she really noticed the similarities between them. They must be brothers. "I'm sorry ma'am," he said with a short bow. He didn't seem to know how to act around her. "My brother's a little headstrong." As she had thought - brothers.

"Don't worry yourself about it," she told Alphonse. "You say this boy is your brother? Where do you two come from; why are you here in Konoha?" Perhaps she should have started by asking one question at a time, but she was far too tired for such small details. She wanted answers and she wanted them now so that she could go home and go to bed. Damn the paperwork, she'd leave it for tomorrow - just as she did every night at around this time.

"Uh...." Alphonse hesitated, and looked over at his brother. His brother looked back, but they said nothing. "Sorry, but I can't really say."

"...And why not?" She arched an eyebrow at him. Taken aback by her tone and expression, the boy began vehemently bowing and apologizing. "That's enough," she said after a minute, stopping him at once. "Well if you can't tell me where you're from, at least tell me why you're here."

"Uh... well, you see..." he shared another look with his brother. Then the words began pouring out of his mouth, while little sweat drops began forming on his head. The boy used his hands a lot while he was speaking, gesturing and showing his palms as if to say that he was innocent. "We got lost, and found Sasuke-san in the woods. He brought us here, because we asked him where the nearest village was. And I guess you want to know why they were fighting. Well, when we got to the village, Sasuke-san tried to leave us there on our own, but we weren't sure what to do or where to go and Edward tried to stop him. Then uhh, Sasuke-san said he was going home, Edward wanted to know where we were supposed to go and Sasuke-san said he didn't care, and... well...." Alphonse's voice faded quieter and quieter throughout his speech until finally he trailed off.

"I see," Tsunade said in an idle tone. "So what were you boys doing wandering around out in the forest at this time of night?"

"But I already told you," Alphonse spoke up, looking confused. "We were lost."

The other boy, Alphonse's brother, caught on to what she was asking for. "We... we don't know why we're here okay?" She gazed at him in surprise. "One minute we were just here, wandering around lost in the woods. That's all." He kept his head down, not meeting her eyes. His voice was all soft and rough edges - he seemed suddenly emotionally disturbed by something. Her easy, probing questions had hit a nerve.

"I'm not sure if I should believe that story or not," the Hokage said quietly, after a moment of thought. "Sasuke, what is your take on all this? Have they said anything... unusual?" She was grasping at straws here, looking for any kind of slip up. There had to be some reason why these boys were in Konoha. The guy, Edward, was lying about his amnesia, she was sure of it.

Sasuke hesitated, thinking. He looked like he wasn't sure what to say. "They said they were..." He seemed to be searching for a certain word, unable to grasp it.

"Alchemists," Edward said, sounding slightly annoyed. "We're alchemists. And I'm a State Alchemist, from Central." Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out an unusual looking... something, but suddenly Tsunade wasn't paying attention.

"Alchemists?" she asked, her voice carrying all tones of surprise. She stood, and her chair toppled over behind her, but she didn't notice. "But how can that be?"

It was silent while she thought, her eyes glued to the desk as if searching for something. She just couldn't believe it. An alchemist in Konoha, after 100 years?

"You know what... this... alchemy is?" Sasuke asked after a moment. Of course he wouldn't use the honorific title of "Hokage-sama" when referring to her. He and Naruto Uzumaki were too close, even if they were rivals - the only thing Naruto would call her by was "old hag" or some such, and Sasuke unconsciously sometimes caught on to some of Naruto's bad habits.

She heard Edward make a small sound of disgust in the back of his throat, and Tsunade looked up at him. "There was an alchemist here before. Once. His name was Hoenheim."

The two strange blonde boys took on equal looks of surprise, and Edward stepped forward, his eyes shining with a strange intensity. "What do you know about Hoenheim?" he asked, and he sounded desperate though his voice was firm. When she did not answer right away, he preceded with a loud, "Tell me, dammit!"

"Edward!" his brother hissed.

The Hokage shook her head in silence, and turned to the moonlit window. "Look boys, I don't know much. It was just a story I heard a long time ago - about a man named Hoenheim who claimed that he was from another world. He used his chakra in strange ways and called it 'alchemy.' He mentioned these half-human creatures and was obsessed with a certain sort of stone...." Her voice trailed off as she remembered the story of her childhood. It had fascinated her when she was little. By now, considering Tsunade's age, it'd been over a hundred years since the day that "alchemist" had supposedly come to Konoha. Slowly, she turned back around to face the two surprise-stricken boys. "So tell me Edward, and Alphonse. What do you two know of Hoenheim?"

A/N: Holy shit. -_-' This is the first four chapters of the original story compacted into one. I can't believe I actually wrote a story that awful and kept it online for so long. Well, at least it was based on a nice little plot, so I guess it'll be alright.