Another routine border patrol on yet another uneventful day. At least the weather was pleasant. Golden sunlight sparkled through the gaps in the leaves dancing across the ground like fireflies as a light breeze coaxed the branches into motion. Even patrol could be almost relaxing on such a day – almost being the key word. With incessant nonsensical chatter chewing her ear off, Sakura doubted that even the hot springs would be peaceful. A vein in her forehead popped.

"Naruto, will you ever just SHUT UP? We're supposed to be on patrol here. How are we ever supposed to spot an enemy when they can hear you coming miles away?" She rolled her eyes, "Sheesh, you're such an idiot." Hinata, the third member of their team, giggled sheepishly at the last remark, but mostly at the pathetic, kicked-puppy-dog face Naruto gave Sakura.

"Come on Sakura, I'm not an idiot anymore. I mean, I never was an idiot. I mean, I'm grown up now! Huh?" He was talking to thin air. He hadn't noticed Hinata signaling to him and Sakura and pulling her off in the opposite direction. Naruto glanced around, befuddled, until he located the backs of his two teammates disappearing into the foliage of the forest. "Hey! Wait for me!" Naruto yelled after them as he rushed to follow.

Farther ahead, Hinata explained to Sakura that she had spotted what appeared to be a person with her Byakugan. The person didn't appear to be moving and Hinata feared there might be trouble. As they neared the point, Hinata signaled and they slowed to a cautious pace. Still under the cover of the trees, Sakura assessed the situation. The person Hinata had located looked to be around their age with blond hair like Naruto's. He was lying spread-eagled on the ground and, were it not for his hair, the color of his clothes would have rendered him near invisible so close in color were they to the surrounding undergrowth. Sakura was in the process of scanning the area for trouble when Naruto, unable to stop after his mad dash to catch up, came barreling through.

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!" He shouted as he tumbled to a stop a mere foot from the boy. Sakura hung her head in despair – so much for caution, Naruto couldn't even arrive quietly like a proper ninja. At least she hadn't seen any traps yet, and Naruto hadn't set anything off, so it appeared to be safe enough. Hinata motioned that she would stand rear-guard and continued to scan the area for any potential threat while Sakura proceeded to where Naruto, ever ignorant of the word 'caution,' was looking the boy over. "Hey, Sakura," Naruto called, "you might want to hurry it up a little. This kid doesn't look too great. I think he needs your help."

Sakura sped up and, after one close-up look at the kid, pulled out her radio. "This is Sakura from the West Patrol, we found an injured child and I'm requesting permission to return with him immediately. No other threats are present but Naruto and Hinata will be remaining behind in case. Over." Sakura waited just long enough for the crackle of the ensuing "Permission granted" before picking up the kid. She pushed aside Naruto's offer of assistance. The kid was light. In fact, he was way too light. The kid needed more assistance then she could offer in the field. A simple once-over couldn't cure near-starvation – he needed the hospital. 'Besides,' she thought as she set a rapid pace back toward Konoha, 'something like this could mean trouble for the village. I need to figure out what's going on as soon as possible. '

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Al opened his eyes for the second time in one day. This time, much to his bewilderment, the view was different. Instead of trees and sky, he was looking at a plain white ceiling. Instead of ground, he was lying on what felt like a bed and covered with a sheet. The last thing he remembered was running through a forest, and this was most definitely not a forest anymore. Al began to feel panicked. Where was he now? The only thing that kept him from losing his mind altogether was the fact that he could feel the sheets against his skin. The fact that he could feel was enough to ensure him that his ordeal in the forest, and the Gate for that matter, had been real. It didn't explain, however, how he got here or where here was. He tried to sit up to get a better look at the room around him but a hand on his chest pushed him back down.

Startled, Al jolted then turned to stare up at the owner of the hand; a young girl with pink hair. She smiled kindly and the softness of her eyes reassured Al that she meant him no harm. "O-genki desu ka?"

Alphonse just stared incomprehensively.

"O-genki desu ka?" she repeated with a little more force and waited for an answer.

"I. . . I don't understand what you're saying miss. I'm really sorry." This time it was the pink haired girl's turn to look confused. Al sighed; this was going to be difficult if he couldn't even communicate with the people around him. He pointed to himself, "Al." She didn't look like she understood where he was coming from, so he repeated the action: "Al." Al noted with relief that her eyes lit up and she appeared to understand. She pointed to herself and replied, "Sakura."

"Sakura" walked over to the side of the room and picked up a tray of food that made Al's mouth water and placed it next to him. Hungrily, Al reached for the fork only to pull up short. There was no utensil resembling a fork on the plate. There was a spoon of sorts, but it was oddly shaped. Sakura smiled, misunderstanding his hesitation and gestured for him to eat. Al decided then and there that he would eat the soup with the spoon, but everything else must be finger food. The one thing he hoped was that he wasn't expected to eat the two sharpened sticks off on the side. They didn't look very tasty.

Sakura looked on incredulously as her new patient treated his meal as finger food and giggled at his attempts to keep the noodles in his soup from falling off his spoon. She laughed even harder when he used his chopsticks as skewers to stab his meat and then left him alone to finish his meal. Sakura was still chuckling as she went to inform Tsunade of the language barrier that she had encountered.