Chapter 2.

Which brings us to where we are now.

"RASENGAN!"

The blonde raced at his two friends- grinning, despite their screams. About two feet in front of them he abruptly stopped and slammed the swirling mass of chakra he held into the ground.

The next few moments were blurry, for all of them. There was a loud crashing sound- but it wasn't like the kind of chakra-meets-ground type of crashing. It almost sounded like glass shattering, and falling to the ground in a million little pieces.

A spark of electricity immediately shot Naruto off the ground and up into the air, letting him fall on his back a few yards away. The spark soon became many, and the last thing the two terrified kunoichi saw was a flash of bright, white light.

And then nothing.

XXXXX

Naruto groaned and opened his eyes just in time to see a pillar of white light engulf his two friends. They shimmered for a moment- as if their particles themselves were being taken away one by one- before disappearing completely.

The blonde blinked in horror, and didn't move for a few minutes. Finally, he got off his back and scrambled over to the place the two women had been standing only moments before. There on the ground, nestled in it's own little hole, was the pocket watch. It's silver gleam and strange creature seemed to mock him now as he picked it up and stared at it.

Pocketing it, he decided to turn to the one person he knew he could count on when nothing made sense.

"HINATA!"

XXXXX

Sakura opened her eyes to see white.

'Am I dead?' She wondered, sitting up. The first thing that she noticed was everything was white. Except for one.

A big, dark, scary-looking set of doors stood before her, interrupting the peaceful white around it. The sides of the door had what looked like haunted faces coming out of them, and there was a giant eye in the center of the doors.

The second thing she noticed was that there was a boy standing in front of the doors. Granted, he was a very skinny, malnourished-looking, naked boy, but a boy nonetheless. He had a wild mane of dirty blonde hair, and was standing, facing the doors.

"Hey kid!" She got up and began walking towards him, wanting him to back away from those scary doors. He turned his head around and stared at her with deep grey eyes. "Get away from there!"

"Sakura?" A voice called, and the pinkette turned around to see that Ino was sitting up a few feet away from where she had woken up. Suddenly, a creaking noise alerted both to stare back at where the boy was standing.

The doors were opening.

Sakura rushed forward again and grabbed the boy's hand, tugging him backwards. She shivered slightly at the contact, and the boy looked up at her with a bewildered expression. It wasn't that he was too cold- he was right in the middle. But from one touch, Sakura could feel that he was empty- there wasn't a soul guiding his existence.

'Then why are you living?'

"Sakura!" Ino called out, running towards her best friend. Leave it to the genius girl to pick the perfect time to space out. Suddenly, black tentacles shot from the opening of the doors, and wrapped themselves around the pinkette's upper arms and ankles. She snapped out of her stupor and tightened her grip on the boy's hand, and grabbing Ino's with the other. Which worked fine, until the tentacles decided to wrap around the blonde as well, and lift her into the air. She grabbed onto Sakura's other hand in the nick of time, leaving both women suspended over the ground in a two-person chain, and the pull of the black tentacles getting harder and harder.

"Do something!" Ino yelled at the boy as she got closer and closer to the infinite darkness that lay inside the doors.

"Please." Sakura asked quietly, but desperately. The boy just stared at her for a moment, then nodded once.

Then, with a small smile, he let go of Sakura's hand, and both women went tumbling into the dark abyss.

XXXXX

It had been a reasonably nice day in Amestris- the sun had been shining, the birds had been singing, and Roy Mustang had been sitting in his office avoiding work.

"Sir, here's some more paperwork for you to look over from the Benedict case." His loyal first lieutenant, Riza Hawkeye, came in a placed a giant pile of paperwork on his desk.

So much for that plan.

"Sir, you haven't done anything all day." Hawkeye responded when Mustang started whining.

"But Rizaaaa..."

"Don't 'but Riza' me, Sir." She scolded. "You're making everyone else do the actual work- all you have to do is read it and then sign off on it. And it's Hawkeye in the office, please Sir."

"Oh, so you don't like it when I call you Riza?" He turned on the charm, thinking that maybe if he could just-

"Don't even think about it, Sir." She turned away, and was walking towards the door when a large booming sound came from outside.

"Is that thunder? But it was completely sunny a few minutes ago..." Mustang pondered, before a flash coming through the window at the back of the office, further confusing him. "Lighting too? But I didn't hear any-" Suddenly, a pounding sound came from above him. "Rain?" Suddenly, Breda burst into the room.

"Sir, I think you should come see this." His eyes were wide, and he was pointing to the office behind him. Mustang immediately put a serious face on as he and Hawkeye rushed out to see what all the fuss was about.

Havoc, Fuery, and Falman were crowded by the window, sharing a pair of binoculars. Falman handed them to Mustang as the group stepped back to let their superior get a good view of what was happening.

It was indeed storming outside, and quite heavily. But through the dense clouds and rain, there was a strange sort of light. Even stranger, the light seemed to be moving very fast- straight at Central Command.

He didn't speak, merely pushed the binoculars into Hawkeye's hands and took off, leaving the office and it's bewildered occupants. He raced down flights of stairs and through twisting hallways before finally bursting through the front doors and outside into the storm.

Mustang valiantly faced the incoming projectile and snapped his fingers, preparing to burn it into oblivion. To his dismay, nothing happened. He snapped again. Still nothing.

"How many times do I have to tell you that you're useless in the rain before it gets through your thick skull, Sir?" Hawkeyed stated with a sigh as she pushed him out of the way. Aiming at her target through the scope of her sniper, she waited until it got just close enough to...

"Wait!" Havoc cried, stepping forward. The rest of the office was down there, panting from the run. "Don't shoot!"

"Why not?" Mustang barked, annoyed that he didn't get to be the hero.

"Because it's alive!"

"What?!"

Suddenly, bright light flooded the courtyard as the mystery object crashed into the ground, causing a mini-quake that shook all of Central City. When the light faded, Mustang and his subordinates were shocked to see a crater had formed in the courtyard, not far from where they currently stood. Havoc was the first to step forward, Mustang and Hawkeye following him.

"It's a girl." The blonde man gasped, standing at the edge of the crater. And it was indeed true- in the center of the large dent in the ground lay a small, petite little girl, who couldn't have been older than six. She had long, light blonde hair that was dirty from the crash, and pale skin, that was currently covered by clothes that were way too big for her tiny frame.

Havoc slid down the side of the crater, walked over and picked her up, carrying her bridal style until he handed her off to Breda so that he could crawl back up the incline. Once standing on solid ground, he took her again and showed her to the Colonel.

"Take her to the hospital." He ordered, gesturing to a nearby building. Havoc nodded, and he and Breda set off, the girl still in his arms. "Fuery."

"Yes Sir?"

"Get some alchemists to clean this up before anyone notices it."

"Yes Sir."

"And Hawkeye?"

"Yes Sir?"

"You and Falman come with me- it's time to work some damage control."

XXXXX

Meanwhile, in the small village of Amestris, a certain blonde alchemist and his brother were spending time with family... or the next closest thing.

"ED!" Winry's enraged shriek came from her upstairs workshop as the Fullmetal Alchemist sprinted down the stairs and frantically looked for a place to hide.

"What did you do this time, Ed?" Alphonse sighed, looking up from the book he had been reading on the couch. His older brother glared at him.

"I didn't do anything! I just told her to forget all the fancy stuff and give me my damn arm back, and it broke!" Said prosthetic was dangling from his left hand as he chose behind the couch as a good place. "I was never here!" He hissed before ducking down to hide. Al just sighed again, and returned to his book.

Moments later, Winry stomped down the stairs, looking absolutely livid.

"Where?" She bit out, teeth clenched and a wrench ready in one hand.

"Behind the couch." Al responded, not even bothering to look up from his book.

"AL!" Ed popped up to yell at his brother, then caught sight of Winry. "Oh crap."

The blonde female was about to pounce when the ground began to shake underneath her.

"It's a quake!" She yelled, running to lean on the doorframe between the kitchen and the living room. Ed and Al both climbed underneath the kitchen table and waited for the vibrations to pass. When all was calm, they all climbed out carefully and looked around. From what they could tell, nothing seemed to be broken.

"I hope the tree didn't fall." Winry said, rushing over to open the door. "OH MY GOD!"

"What is it?!" Ed and Al rushed over to see what happened- and what they saw shocked them too. In a large crater not too far from the front door lay a small, skinny little girl.

"It's a kid?" Ed asked. Al wasted no time in grabbing his raincoat (something Pinako had made him so that the rain wouldn't affect his blood seal) and rushing out to the crater. He slid down it with ease, and slowly approached the girl. She was quite pretty, for a child. She had pale skin and medium length hair that went just past her shoulders- which happened to be a very bright pink- and wore clothes about three times her size.

Al picked her up and climbed back out of the crater, bringing her into the house to meet Winry at the door. She immediately started fussing over the little girl, and laid her down on the couch.

"She's adorable!" The blonde girl gasped, brushing a stray lock of hair out of the unconscious girl's face and placing her head on her lap. "Al, will you please go fix the ground outside while I try to clean her up?" The suit of armor nodded and went back outside to fill the crater. Ed, happy for a distraction from her anger, turned around to sneak into the kitchen quietly.

"Not so fast, Shortstack." Ed froze and turned around, quietly seething at his nickname. Winry glared at him with intense blue eyes.

"I'm going to go get her some of my old clothes- they should fit- but I want you to watch her in case she wakes up."

"Why should I?"

"Edward Elric, if you don't help me with this little girl, I will not repair your automail." Knowing she had him beat, she placed the girl's head back on the couch and walked towards the stairs, before turning around again. "And I'll never speak to you again." With that, she walked up the stairs towards her bedroom.

Ed sighed and plopped down on the couch by the girl's feet. She stirred slightly, and he leaned in towards her, to check if she was waking up.

Before he could open his mouth to say something, her foot came up and kicked him hard in the jaw. It was a fast kick, like something he would've done while sparring with Al. After holding his tender jaw for a moment, he turned to yell at the little girl, but she was still sleeping. How could he yell at someone for a reflex like that?

Ed groaned and leaned his head on the back of the couch. This was going to be trouble- he just knew it.

XXXXX

Happy Halloween everyone! I told myself I would finish the third chapter before posting this, but felt spirited enough to do it anyway. Thanks to my reviewers (all 3 of you. :D) for being supportive. I know Gaara-Ino is a weird pairing, but I like it. Anyway, it's my best friend's birthday, and we got all our friends together to go as different characters from Candyland. I'm Queen Frostine- what is everyone else being? Review, and thanks again!