Disclaimer: I do not own anything from the universes Fullmetal Alchemist, Naruto, D. Gray-Man, Inuyasha, or any other anime else that shows up in the story.
Note: As the summery indicated, this story takes places in an alternate universe. In this universe, Ed and Al are 16 and 17, and Al has gotten his body back. However, Maes Hughes, King Bradley, etc are still alive. Naruto and crew are all 15 and older. Sasuke didn't run off with Orochimaru, and Sandaime is still alive. The exorcists are not having any akuma problems. Kagome and the others are not looking for the shards. Also, Inuyasha and Shippo are 17 and 8, instead of 67 and 50. And so on. Enough talk. Please enjoy!
-------------
Twenty-seven students were gathered in a high school classroom. It was the first day of school, and the high school they were standing in was brand new. All of their previous schools had been shut down by the Board of Education, and this school was their city's last hope. These twenty-seven students had been called out of their homerooms. Apparently, there was something special prepared for them.
Twelve of those students were from Konoha Secondary School. Three were from Sunagakure S.S., which was located close to Konoha High, but slightly smaller. Three were from Central Secondary School, and four were from Feudal Tokyo Secondary School. Four students were still dressed in the uniforms of their old school, Dark Religious Catholic School.
There were a variety of characters in the room. Their ages ranged from eight to eighteen. Their hair colours ranged from black to silvery white; from bubble gum pink to golden blonde. There were also a variety of outfits, from an obnoxiously short skirt to a red kimono, and from black Catholic school uniforms to a bright orange jumpsuit. There were also a variety of races… well, okay, all of them were Japanese, with the exception of three Amestrian kids (Ed, Al and Winry), three Chinese kids (Lenalee, Tenten and Lee), an English boy (Allen) and a boy of mixed race (Lavi). They were gathered in various groups around the room, chatting and laughing.
"Good! You're all here!" a buxom blonde woman entered the room. A tall Chinese man with glasses carrying a mug of coffee accompanied her.
"Principal Tsunade?" a pink-haired girl named Sakura Haruno recognized her old principal from Konoha High.
"Yeah. They asked me to be the principal of this school," replied Principal Tsunade. "Good morning, everyone. All of you now know that I am your principal. This is your Vice Principal, Komui Li."
"Hi, brother!" Lenalee Li from Dark Religious Catholic School waved at him.
"You may be wondering why you're all here. The Board of Education has decided to create a 'gifted class' for this school. We chose the students with the most potential, and, here you are," continued Principal Tsunade. "Throughout this year, you will be taking all twenty courses our school has to offer, instead of four per semester like your peers."
"What?" gasped Ino Yamanaka, a girl who was Sakura's best friend and rival.
"No way!" cried a golden-haired, golden-eyed boy named Edward Elric.
"You're kidding!" groaned Miroku, the class pervert.
"But this is my last year!" a red-haired boy from Dark Religious named Lavi exclaimed. "I don't want it to be hell!" The rest of the class also displayed similar reactions.
"If you've got a problem, go complain to the Board. They came up with the idea," Tsunade shrugged. "If you have any questions, ask Mr. Li. He'll be keeping an eye on you this year. I've got lots to do, so I'll leave you now. Good luck!" With that, Tsunade left.
"I'll take your attendance!" announced Komui cheerfully. He read through all the names, from Gaara to Yamanaka, Ino.
"So where's our homeroom?" asked a silver-haired youkai named Inuyasha.
"You don't have one. You go to your first class of the day as soon as school starts. Here," Komui handed out slips of paper with their schedules. "It'll be hard at first, but you'll get sued to it. An as Ms. Tsunade said, I'll be hopping up every now and then to see how you're doing."
"But brother, you're the Vice Principal," said Lenalee. "Aren't you going to be really busy with paperwork and stuff?"
"Oh, no, don't worry," Komui waved it off. "The school secretary has it all under control. In fact, there he is right now! Everyone, say hi to Reever Wenham!"
A red-haired man stumbled by the classroom, struggling to see over the mountain of papers he carried. He gave an awkward grunt to acknowledge Komui, and walked on. A little bit down the hall, he attempted to turn the corner. He collided with the wall, and all the papers went flying. The class saw him struggle to gather up the work.
"He'll be fine," Komui assured the class, shutting the door. "Anyway, the class you're supposed to be having right now is drama. Your teacher called a few minutes ago to say she couldn't make it. It seems she's busy filming today, so I'll be keeping an eye on you!"
"That's great. But what are we going to do for the next seventy-five minutes?" asked a popular, good-looking boy named Sasuke Uchiha.
"Talk," shrugged Komui, taking a sip of coffee. And the class happily did just that until the bell rang. When it did, the class filed out of the room and exited the building. They were given five minutes to reach the greenhouses for their next class, botany.
"Hello. I am your botany teacher, Mr. Arystar Krory," a tall, pale man told the class once they were assembled at the back of the greenhouse. He had two-toned hair, and a very gentle, almost depressed expression on his face. Two sharp fangs jutted out from under his upper lip, making him look like a real, live (or undead) vampire. "Today, we will be learning about man-eating Venus Flytraps. Please get into groups of three and sit around a plant."
All hell broke loose. Both Sakura and Ino wanted Sasuke to join their group, and expressed their desires loudly and high-pitched. However, he grouped up with the Sand Brothers Gaara and Kankurou. Tenten, a 16-year-old girl with her hair up in buns became the third member of Sakura and Ino's group. Lenalee teamed up with a white-eyed girl named Hinata Hyuga, and Hinata's crush, Naruto Uzumaki. Hinata's cousin Neji chose Kanda and Shino as his partners. And so on.
"Please draw a sketch of the plant, and label its parts," Mr. Krory drifted sorrowfully among the students and handed out pieces of blank paper. "Please treat these plants with love."
The students sat around huge, drooling plants. They opened their jaws once in a while to snap at the insects that flew by. All of the students were disgusted, but the four from Dark Religious, who'd had Krory before, were particularly alarmed. They occasionally twisted and moved, to hinder they students in their work. That particularly annoyed Edward Elric, who always had his plant move just when he was getting to the hardest parts.
"Stupid plant!" he cried in fury the sixth time that happened. "Stay still, dammit!"
"Ed! Don't call the plant names!" warned his partner, a white-haired boy named Allen Walker.
"Why not? It's not like it has feelings. Stupid, idiot, piece-of-a-crap plant!" Edward gave the table a little kick. The Venus Flytrap suddenly opened its leaves. It twisted over to Ed. And closed its jaws around his head.
"Brother!" Alphonse Elric cried, grabbing onto the stem of the plant. He unsuccessfully tried to tug it away from his brother. The man-eating Venus Flytrap didn't completely muffle Ed's swearing, as he tried to pry it off. The plant only clamped tighter in response to the names Ed called it. By now, the rest of the class had abandoned their own projects to come over and look.
"Nice plant! I love you!" Allen crooned lovingly, stroking the Venus Flytrap.
"Help me!" Edward pleaded. "It stinks in here!"
"You're such a beauty! I love you!" Alphonse joined Allen in complimenting the plant. Finally, after a good ten minutes, the plant finally loosened its jaws. Ed quickly pulled his head out, and put some distance between himself and the Man-eater. Everybody cheered.
"Back to your seats," Mr. Krory told everyone in his grieving voice. "And treat the plants with love." This time, everybody listened. Ed went to the bathroom to wipe the slime off his face. He didn't come back for the rest of the period, which passed by uneventfully. Finally, at 11:35, the bell rang for lunch. After dropping off their books, everyone headed towards the cafeteria.
"What would you like?" asked the chef, an effeminate Indian man with dreads named Jeryy.
Hinata Hyuga quickly ordered her lunch and paid Jeryy. Carefully balancing her tray, Hinata scanned the sea of people for a familiar face. She saw several, but wasn't sure she wanted to eat lunch with them. Finally, she spotted a group of girls from his class. Carefully holding her tray, she inched towards their table.
"Hi, Hinata," Lenalee smiled at her. They had been in the same group for Krory's project
"Can I sit here?" asked Hinata.
"Oh, sure!" Sango's cat Kirara jumped off the seat beside her, and Hinata sat down.
"Which school are you from, Hinata?" Kagome inquired.
"Konoha," replied Hinata.
"Wow! Over half of our class is from there! You must know a lot of people!" exclaimed Sango.
"Maybe you can introduce me? I barely know anyone," admitted Shippo.
"Sure. I think that between the five of us, we know everybody in our class," said Lenalee. "Where are you from, Shippo?"
"Well, I was supposed to go to Feudal this year, but it shut down," said Shippo. "I'm actually only 8. I skipped a few grades."
"Really?" gasped Hinata. "You're a genius!"
"Well, it's really not that impressive," Shippo grinned sheepishly. "I'm probably the youngest in the school, though. I'm glad I ended up in the same class as Kagome."
"Shippo's parents died when he was little," explained Kagome. "He lives with my family."
"Oh. I'm sorry," there was uncomfortable silence. "I don't really know anyone except for the ones that went to Konoha," revealed Hinata.
"Okay, the silver-haired guy over there is Inuyasha. He can be a jerk sometimes, but he sticks up for people if the get bullied," Kagome pointed to Inuyasha.
"The guy in the purple robes is Miroku," Sango pointed to the dark-haired boy sitting beside him. "We went to school with Inu and Miroku. Miroku's kind of a pervert."
"The boy with the short white hair and rune over his eye is Allen Walker," said Lenalee, pointing to the same table. "The guy with the red hair is Lavi. The other two at their table are Ed and Al, the Elric brothers."
"That blonde girl with the black tube top is Winry Rockbell," Sango pointed at a tableful of giggling girls. "I don't really know anyone else from that table."
"The girl with the pink hair is Sakura Haruno and the one with the blonde pony-tail is Ino Yamanaka. They're best friends, but they fight a lot," introduced Hinata. "And the girl with the brown hair is Tenten. The one with four blond pigtails is Temari. She went to Suna, which isn't all that far away from Konoha. Her brothers, Gaara and Kankurou are sitting over there. Gaara's got red hair and Kankurou's the one with the face paint." Hinata moved onto a table where a group of sullen boys sat silently. "The good-looking boy is Sasuke Uchiha. He's really popular. The one with sunglasses is Shino Aburame. And the one with white eyes is Neji Hyuga. I'm not sure who the boy with the bangs is."
"That's Yu Kanda, but we call him Kanda," Lenalee pointed at the kid in question. "He gets mad if people call him by his first name. He went to my old school."
"Hey, come to think of it, Neji kind of looks like you," Kagome observed. "Are you guys related in any way.
"Yeah. We're cousins," Hinata didn't sound too happy about the fact, so everyone decided to drop it.
"I think the ones from that table are in our class, too," Shippo pointed to a group of boys who were stuffing food down their throats, and complaining.
"There's Kiba Inuzuka and his dog Akamaru," Hinata started naming them. "Kiba and Shino have both been in all of my classes every year since kindergarten. And there's Shikamaru Nara, Chouji Akimichi, Rock Lee and, um… Naruto Uzumaki." Hinata's face reddened immensely when she said the last name.
"Hey, Naruto worked with us in botany, right?" Lenalee remembered.
"Really? What was he like?" inquired Kagome.
"Well, I get the impression that he's not the best student, at least not in botany." replied Lenalee.
"Naruto always works hard and tries his best," Hinata stuck up for him.
"He did try pretty hard to get the Man-eater right," agreed Lenalee.
"Does Mr. Krory always make you study such interesting plants?" asked Kagome.
"Ugh. Yeah." Lenalee frowned. "Last year, he brought in a species of carnivorous roses that bit a student's finger off. He got it sewed back on, but his teammates had quite a time trying to get it back!"
"Twenty different classes per week," Sango studied her schedule. "What do you think the other teachers will be like?"
"I hope they're nice," said Shippo. "What class do we have next, anyway?"
-------------
"Math. We've got math in room B109," Allen Walker consulted his schedule. He, Alphonse and Edward were racing through the halls looking for the classroom that hosted their next class. Allen and Edward had both ordered a lot of food for lunch, and Alphonse had waited patiently for them. As a result, all three of them were now running late.
"B102, B104, B106," Ed read off the class numbers as they ran by. "We should be close!"
"Here!" Allen spotted Lavi sitting in the front row through the open doorway of B109. The three of them braked in front of the door. The lesson had already begun, and they could hear their teacher's voice drifting out.
"If I owed Sakura $25, Ino $15 and Tenten $20, how much would I owe all together?" the teacher was a man with a mane of red hair dressed in long, black robes and a black hat that threw the upper face of his face in shadow.
"No way!" gasped Allen. Just then, the teacher spotted the three standing at the doorway.
"You're late. Please take your seats," he instructed them. Three seats in the back were empty, and the three of them sat down. Allen read the name the man put up on the blackboard, and the teacher's identity was confirmed.
"Do you know him?" hissed Edward.
"Yeah. That's Mr. Cross Marian. He used to teach at my old school. When my foster father died, he took me in with him. Then, last year, he left, saying he wanted to see the world. Cross is really good at borrowing money, but not so good at returning it," Allen hissed back.
"If he left last year, who do you live with now?" whispered Ed.
"Kanda, Lavi and I each pay one-third of the rent for our apartment," replied Allen.
"Allen Walker and… Edward Elric, is it?" Cross Marian looked in their direction.
"Yes, sir!" they answered.
"If I borrowed $100 from Chouji, and there was a 10 interest per year, how much would I owe him by the end of three years?" Mr. Marian asked them.
"$131.10?" Ed offered after doing some calculations.
"He wouldn't owe him anything," Allen muttered semi-fondly. "I'd be working it off for him."
"Correct. By the way, you wouldn't happen to have a hundred on you, would you?" Mr. Marian asked Chouji. Chouji began to search through his pockets. Allen sighed, deciding he might as well pay back Chouji as soon as possible. Nope, his teacher hadn't changed at all.
-------------
Their last class was chemistry with Roy Mustang. Mr. Mustang was a good-looking dark-haired man the same age as Komui. Sakura and Ino took quite a fancy to him, but their hopes were shattered when Winry informed them of the rumor that he had a thing for one of the life skills teachers, Riza Hawkeye. Mr. Mustang taught them a few things about the element table, and assigned them a few things from the textbook for homework. At the end of the period, he put on his special 'ignition cloth gloves' and set the science skeleton on fire, much to the delight of most of the class. Then, the final bell rang at 3:15, signaling the end of the class. Everyone rushed to their lockers.
"Hey, Temari, want to come do homework at my house? You can stay for dinner," Winry invited her new friend. In addition to Mustang's textbook work, Marian had assigned them five sheets of math homework, and Krory had given them a sheet of questions about the man-eating Venus Flytrap.
"Okay. I won't be home for dinner tonight," Temari told her brothers as she passed by them. "We're orphans, and we live by ourselves. I cook all of our meals and do the chores."
"They can come too," offered Winry.
"Nah. Let them fend for themselves. You know what? Let's make it a sleepover! That'll teach them to appreciate their big sister," Winry and Temari giggled.
"I'm home!" Winry announced when they entered her house on Resembool Drive. She was a little later than usual, because they had gone to Temari's house to pick up some stuff. They entered the kitchen. "I brought a friend home for dinner! Is it okay if she sleeps over?"
"Sure," a short, old, bespectacled woman with grey hair was chopping vegetables for dinner.
"That's my grandma, Pinako Rockbell. Grandma, this is Temari." Winry introduced.
"Are you in the same class? The boys told me all three of you ended up in the 'gifted class'" said Pinako.
"Grandma Pinako teaches technology at our school," Winry told Temari proudly.
"I'm getting too old for teaching," added Pinako. "I'm going to retire soon, and lead a nice, quiet life right here in this house."
Just then, Edward and Alphonse walked into the kitchen. Ed was wearing a T-shirt and shorts that clearly showed his auto-mail limbs. He nodded at Temari in acknowledgement, and Al said hello. Ed went into the cupboard, and pulled out a bag of chips.
"We're going to train," Ed told Pinako, and the brothers headed outside.
"I didn't realize Ed and Al lived with you," said Temari. "Are you cousins or something?"
"They've lived with us for a pretty long time, ever since their mother died. Their father walked out on them when they were young," explained Winry. "Well, they haven't lived with us all that time. They went to live and train with their teacher a while back. We're not related, but I feel like they're my brothers."
"What's wrong with Ed's arm and leg?" asked Temari.
"After they finished their training, Ed got into an accident," said Pinako. "He and Alphonse came back to live with us after that."
"Anyway, what do you think of the school?" Winry quickly changed the subject. "It sucks how we have to learn more than anybody else, huh? What do you think the other teachers will be like?"
"No one too weird, I hope," replied Temari. "Actually, I thought all of our teachers today were okay. Krory seemed kind of out of it, and Marian didn't talk about anything besides money, but I can live with them."
"I think the school's pretty good. Everything's new, and actually clean," said Winry. "I like it so far. Even though we have to take twice the number of classes everyone else takes."
"I like it too," agreed Temari. "I hope the Board of Education doesn't shut it down, like they did with all the other high schools in this city."