disclaimer: I own neither Naruto, Shingekino Kyojin, nor Fullmetal Alchemist.
"There exists a Japanese idiom, fundoshi o shimete kakaru or 'tighten your loincloth,' that parallels the English phrase, 'roll up your sleeves' — in other words, get ready for some hard work."
The ceremonial chambers bathed in the murky light of dozens of candles. Murals of giant monsters engaged in mortal combat stretched across the walls. The candlelight flickered across a figure sitting quietly upon the alter. He was obviously a medium sized pale skinned man with long braided white hair cascading down his back. He wore a charcoal gray short shirt kimono with matching trousers; underneath he wore mesh armor extending out of the sleeves and legs of his uniform. He accessorized with hand guards, a simple black obi, and traditional geta. His outfit was completed with a long red trench coat with a hood and a black Flamel alchemical symbol emblazoned on its back.
The white haired yet youthful shinobi sat in seiza position in the middle of a large symbol drawn on the alter of the ceremonial room. He finished drawing smaller symbols with a quill dipped in dark colored ink and leaned back to examine his work. The symbol was a large circle with several rectangles intersecting in a crosswise fashion with esoteric runes written in the rectangles and around the circumference of the circle. He grunted in satisfaction.
He briefly stopped to wonder if including the narukoyuri, a chakra bearing plant referred to as "Solomon's seal," in the jutsu formula was a good idea.
The shinobi shrugged and said to no one in particular, "just enough in the mixture to galvanize the ink. It'll boost the power output."
"Yeah... but maybe a little too much." he said out loud a second later.
It had been fifteen years he'd wanted to know if ninjutsu could do what alchemy couldn't, i.e. take him back to his home at let him see his loved ones again... see Al again. Ninjutsu didn't seem to have the same limitations as alchemy. Sure there was the fundamental concept in ninjutsu of proportionate risk, but it was a bit different. It was a miracle he could perform it. Just maybe, Truth had left him a way back. He snorted, cynical at his very own optimism. As if that bastard ever gave anyone anything for free.
His thoughts hearkened back to the day he'd offered up his gate of truth for equivalent exchange. It was the same day he ended up here in a world of homicidal ninjas, who make Fu and Lan Fan look like toddlers playing a children's game.
He performed six hand symbols: Boar → Tiger → Rabbit → Ox → Rat → Monkey. And in a flash of light and a crackle of thunder that shook the building at its foundations, he was gone. Tendrils of wispy smoke rose off the place where he had once been sitting.
In the next moment the shinobi was only aware of the sensation of pain of a thousand volts carousing through his body, the blinding light that sent daggers into the back of his brain, and the overwhelming pressure squeezing his very being out of the bowels of this world into somewhere... else.
Cold wetness slammed him in the face. He couldn't breathe. Water choked in his throat. He thrashed about trying to gain purchase, but he was so weak. He sank into the murky depths. It seemed all his strength was gone. A newborn babe would have more energy to work with. His loved ones flashed before his eyes. A brother, the woman he loved, his one time mechanic that he would never see again. A pity such a short adventurous life was about to become even shorter. The bulb that burns twice as bright they often say.
He heard shouting. Hands wrapped around his coat and tugged him to the surface. Someone positioned him on his back and kept his head above water as they towed him to safety. Merciful cold earth met his hands as he was dragged ashore; his body leaving a muddy trail from the shoreline on into the grass. He had time to note that the hand which clutched him was quite small, like what you'd expect to see on a child. The tugging ceased and his head hit the ground with a thump. "Ouch." he said.
"Be careful! You want to give him a concussion?"
"Apparently the idiot was trying to kill himself anyway so one good lump might knock some sense through that impregnable skull."
He opened his eyes to stare at the clear blue skies and white fluffy clouds, interrupted only by fits of coughing and sputtering.
Were they speaking... Amestrian? He hadn't heard it from another human being for so long it sounded so strange in his ears. Did he make it? Was he finally home?
He swiveled his head from the azure sky towards the two voices. It took a moment, but his vision refocused and he saw two dark haired children standing over him, a boy and a girl. The girl was very pretty, but there was so much sadness behind the expression on her oval face that it hurt to look at her. He'd seen that look before... in Ishval and other places with stranger names. The boy was a handsome young man with an angular face. His eyes were alive with passion. He looked as if he'd just hit the lottery.
"Look at those clothes! Who is he? Where did he come from?"
"Don't know. Don't care."
"But he wasn't there a moment ago, there was a flash of light, and then he was! Do you think he came from beyond the walls?!"
"What like projectile Titan vomit?" At that the boy just gave her a dirty look. " Maybe he fell from the sky. Who knows? Who cares? He got my scarf wet and muddy."
"Forget about that stupid scarf! This man needs a doctor! I'll go get my father. Try NOT to trigger his cause of death before I get back."
"Roger that."
The boy raced off like he had chakra boosters on his heels. It was just a hair's breadth from a shunshin. The little girl, who couldn't have been more than 10 or 11 years old, seemingly the same age as the boy, bent over and stared into the alchemist-shinobi's eyes. "Still among us? What say you?"
Edward Elric gazed up into her quiet, sad, black eyes, gasping for oxygen as that profound weakness sapped his remaining strength and a piercing pain racked his body.
Gingerly, he nodded his head. "Yep... a little too much." he said. And thankfully, mercifully, the abyss rose up to claim his thoughts.
Author's Notes: It may seem contrived to some of you, but many of the names in Shingeki no Kyojin hail from the German language. A dead giveaway is the German line from the opening 'Sie sind das Essen und wir sind die Jäger' pronounced: 'Zee zind das Es-sen und vir zind dee Yay-gah.' literally translates as: 'They are the food and we are the hunter.' There are Swedish, Jewish, and Greek influences in Shingeki no Kyojin. Also some French and Turkish influences. Back in 2010, author, Hajime Isayama, apparently admitted that General Dot Pixis was based on Yoshifuru Akiyama, a general in the Imperial Japanese Army. It's like a gumbo of European and Asian influences with German being the most prominent. I have decided to treat the language spoken in the Shingeki no Kyojin world as an alien dialect of German.
And of course Amestris in Fullmetal Alchemist was based on an amalgamation of many European countries during the 17th century and early 20th century with heavy influences from Nazi Germany. They seemed tailor made for each other. Also, I didn't want to spend whole chapters dealing with language barriers. Nor did I want to rely heavily on time skips throughout this story, as I'd originally intended only a crossover between Naruto and Attack on Titan using Jiraiya as a medium. However, I've been wanting to do an FMA/Naruto crossover for a long time, but stalled on it. This seemed like a good opportunity to revisit that path. I hit upon using adult Edward instead of Jiraiya and included my own original characters instead of relying on ones from the Narutoverse. That'll probably piss off some Naruto fans. If so, I apologize in advance.
I figure Ed, who'd spent 15 years in the Narutoverse by the time of the story, learning the lingo and becoming a shinobi, can serve as the medium between the Attack on Titan characters and the rest of the Narutoverse. There will be only a handful of FMA characters mostly from flashbacks. Most of my Naruto characters will be originals. And I'll try to stick with the canon Shingeki no Kyojin roster. Hopefully, I won't offend too many fandoms.
Expect only periodic bulk updates. I don't do things one chapter at a time. Sorry for any annoying errors in formatting. This is my very first upload to fanfiction.
That's my story. And I'm sticking to it!