Hi! Again! Thanks for those who are still reading! (Really happy) It means that the story isn't going to crash!

I have just one favor to ask you. Can you critique? I mean actual specific comments. I've mostly been getting "I like it." But you don't have to do. (You probably know what I'm going to say now. Don't you?) You have free will, so use it. But. I NEED TO KNOW THAT MY STORY IS BAD! (Weird. Well, technically how bad and where it is) Compliments sometimes make me quesy! ; ; I'm just a strange writer.

If you're wondering why Ed has to do ALL THIS STUFF, well, I need it for the plot. :P More like sub-plot, but who cares?

Well, enjoy! And I don't own anything. Just the plot, that will come up . . . soon. Hopefully, soon enough for you guys.

A Metal Heart

"Edward Gets a Job"

The next morning, Ed heard a knock on the front door. He got up dazedly and walked over to the door to open it.

Outside was Hiashi, looking down at the him, "Good morning, Ed,"

"Good afternoon" Ed said looking up at Hiashi. His words were slurred and tired; and he clearly didn't know what time of day it was.

Hiashi chuckled, "Tired?"

Ed nodded, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

Hiashi entered into the house and was greeted by Neji, Tenten, Kiba and Hinata.

"Good morning, Hiashi-sama." Neji greeted Hiashi formally.

"Good morning," Hiashi said and turned to Kiba and Tenten, "and thank you for looking after Hinata and Neji."

Kiba and Tenten nodded their heads sleepily.

"Are you all ready for school today?" Hiashi asked, taking command, "What will you do Ed?"

"I'm going to the library." Ed replied.

Hiashi smiled and nodded again. "So, did you guys order in again?" he asked as he looked through the refrigerator if there were leftovers.

"The day before yesterday, we did, but yesterday, Ed made lunch and dinner. Ed is pretty good cook," Tenten said. "Sorry, but there aren't any leftovers from yesterday and the day before; we ate it all."

Hiashi's eyes showed doubt and anger, but that soon vanished.

The young ninjas and the alchemist walked along a dirt trail going to town where the library and the school were.

Ed was followed idly behind them. He began looking at his surroundings while he walked; comparing them with Germany and Amestris. Konoha was different from the other two worlds. Konoha has vast amounts of forests. The buildings in a town were grouped closely together and were sort of botched up. While Germany and Amestris had less trees and the building were spread apart and they were carefully constructed to endure as much things that could knock them down.

"Okay Ed. This is the library and next door is the bookstore," Tenten told him when they stopped right in front of two small buildings.

"No one reads that much books, do they." Ed remarked, looking at the buildings with disdain.

"So true," Kiba said, "Most of it is about ninja stuff, too."

Ed frowned. He's probably going to be able to read every book in the bookstore and in the library in about a few hours or so; especially with the lack of books in both buildings.

"Okay, see you after school," Neji said as he went to the direction of the ninja school.

Ed continued to frown discontentedly as he entered the tiny library.

Ed had read practically all of the books in both the library and the bookstore. He had scanned through on things about ninjas. He memorized maps, how the economy works, sciences, the history of the ninja world, and anything else that seems practical.

He began flipping through some manga and some other fiction books just to pass the time. Before long, he even read all of that, too.

Seeing he had nothing else to read, he went outside to wait for the others.

He sat outside on bench in front of the bookstore. He tried to pass the time by recalling everything that he had read, making sure he didn't forget anything. He hadn't.

Ed sighed, head bent back, looking up at the sky with his arms stretched out and fingers intertwined in front of his face, staring at the auto-mail and the organic hand.

Ed was bored. Horrible memories popped into his head. He started thinking about things he didn't want to think about. He hated being bored, feeling just like Al in those constant interminable nights during their painful journey on seeking the Philosopher's Stone. And knowing that, he felt even worse; like everything was his fault.

Ed pressed his crossed fingers to his face, covering his eyes. He felt the cold hard metal of his auto-mail against his skin.

"Bored?" a voice called out to him.

Ed jolted upright, nearly falling off the edge of the bench, and saw Hinata, Neji, Kiba and Tenten standing right in front of him. "Yeah. I read practically every book in the library and the bookstore," Ed grunted angrily.

Everyone gawked at him, but Neji just nodded. He pulled that thing off, too, when he was also around Ed's age.

Ed got off the bench and stretched. "C'mon, I want to go back so I can eat something!"

Tenten and Kiba had parted from Ed, Hinata and Neji along the way to the Hyugas' house. And now Neji and Hinata were working on Hinata's homework while Ed and Hiashi talked idly.

"Hey, Hiashi," Ed said rudely as he chomped on a granola bar, "Why does Neji and Hinatan need to be 'baby-sitted' by Kiba and Tenten? Not that I don't think that they are good people, which they are, but, can't Neji and Hinatan handle themselves? Unless they are so dependent that they need help from their friends?" Ed glared at Hiashi as if to say, "We kids aren't that stupid you know; we can take care of ourselves."

Hiashi just stared at him with a questioning look. "Well, Hinata is quite young and probably incapable on handling herself," Hiashi began. Edward rolled his eyes at that lame arguement. "And, ah, I just sort of don't . . . trust Neji."

"Is it the reasonable hatred he placed upon the Main branch because of the legacy curse of the Cadet Branch in the Hyuga clan?"

Hiashi looked taken aback. "So, you know?" he asked cautiously. He doesn't want the guest to know about the hateful curse placed upon every Cadet Branch member.

"Read it off a book." Ed replied care freely, taking another bit out of his snack.

Hiashi stared at the alchemist. Ed was sort of suspicious, as if he held many secrets, some of them Ed himself might not know.

On the next day, Ed had nothing to do, so he followed the ninjas into town on the way to ninja school.

"Are you sure that you know the way back?" Neji asked.

"Yeah, don't worry 'bout me, I memorized all the maps from the library, so I can't get lost!" Ed reassured him.

Neji nodded and continued to walk.

As the Ed, Hinata, and Neji entered the town, they heard worried murmurs from civilians.

"Did you see that storm last night?" one said.

"Yeah, I heard it destroyed more than half of this town!" Another one replied.

"My family and I were about to call in a repair person, but we found out we can't afford it because of how much damage was done to the house," someone else said apprehensively.

"Repairs are all too expensive and take way too long! And the all the weathermen say that there would be many more storms coming up! We won't stand a chance!" a worried mother cried.

Ed, Hinata and Neji heard the concern from the townspeople. Neji and Hinata began to worry for them, but Ed just smiled.

"Why are you just standing there smiling, Ed? Aren't you worried? And how about a little bit of sympathy for the poor people?" Neji asked with dull concern.

"No," Ed replied, "I just found something to do!" Ed raced over to the townspeople and began talking to them.

"What is Edward thinking?" Neji muttered under his breathe.

"He's probably going to repair houses." Hinata inferred.

Neji and Hinata continued to walk to their school, watching Ed try suppressing his anger at the civilians.

Ed ran over to a group of people that murmured apprehensively. He stopped near the circle, catching their attention.

"What's a pipsqueak doing here?" a man said distastefully.

Edward tensed up, if I wasn't trying to be nice to you idiots, you would be slugged to the NEXT country! He thought angrily. His eyes sparked up with pure anger.

"Oh, look, he's sensitive with his height! Isn't that cute!" the same man mocked, "So, what do you want?"

Ed looked up and smiled angrily, the tip of his mouth twitched with rage, "I heard you people need repairs on your houses. I can fix them all sometime today; cheap, and fast."

Then a woman stepped forward and peered at the angry child with a worried expression etched all over her face, "Oh, but you're so young! We can't possibly ask for such a difficult task to someone your age!"

"Ageist," Ed muttered under his breath. No one heard him. "I've fixed many other things when I was . . . uh . . . err . . . five." He hesitated trying to remember what age he learned alchemy.

"But how old are you now?" the woman asked gently.

"I'm not gonna tell you," Ed answered roughly.

"He's fresh." Another man muttered.

"The shrimp should be at home and should be taught some manners," the first man commented.

This time, Ed couldn't hold in his rage. He ran over to the man and uppercut his chin. Before anyone knew what was going on, the man crashed into a store, breaking it and Ed started going on his usual rants. "WHAT ELSE ARE YOU GONNA CALL ME?! HALF-PINT BEAN SPROUT?! SHORT-TEMPERED?! SOMEONE THAT CAN'T BE DISTINGUISHED FROM GRAINS OF SAND?!" Ed screamed.

Everyone stared at the damage done to the building, then at the screaming kid. Some people started inching away from the still angry child. The man started to get up until the owner of the store barged out through the door.

"Who the heck did this to my store?!" the shopkeeper yelled.

Ed grumbled undistinguishable words under his breath. He marched over to the destruction site and clapped his hands together and pressed them on the ground. Alchemic light engulfed both the alchemist and the building.

The light subsided, and the townspeople stared at the repaired building.

Ed looked at the fixed wall with great satisfaction. "Better?"

The man nodded stupidly.

"H-how can you fix the building so fast?" a woman muttered, staring at where the hole was.

Immediately, people started crowding like a murder of hungry crows around Ed to ask him to fix their houses.

"Okay, okay! I promise to fix all of your houses!" Ed said to keep everyone from running each other and himself over.

Ed fixed many houses and possessions. He soon became quite popular for working fast and for only twenty or so yen, only raising the price by a little if he had to buy raw materials for the transmutation, or depending on how hard the item was to analyze and transmute.

Neji and Hinata found Ed sitting on a bench eating a bright blue Popsicle, tinkering with something strange. Next to him was a bag with tons of possessions, a wallet bulging with change, and two towering piles of books.

"Hi, Ed!" Hinata called over to him as she ran over.

Ed just nodded with the Popsicle still sticking out of his mouth as he examined the device.

"You've become quite famous around the town, Edward," Neji said.

Ed looked up with the frozen treat still in his mouth. He had a questioning look on his face. He pulled to Popsicle out of his mouth. "I am?"

"Yeah, we were looking for you, so we asked some people for a location to where you were. Each time, they said that you were in somebody's house fixing stuff. Everyone started jabbering on and on about how good you are and stuff." Neji said.

Ed the questioning look quickly changed into a bright, cocky smile, "I'm so amazing, right?"

"Ed? What are in the bag? D-did you steal them? Or did you buy them?" Hinata asked, pointing to the bag.

Ed looked at the bag and pointed at it, "You mean this? It's a bag of stuff that people want me to fix. It's not much. Since alchemy requires you to know the structures, the elements and all that stuff, and I'm not familiar with the things here, I have to find the structures and all that out," Ed sighed and looked at the device in his hands, "What's this?" he held it up towards the Hyugas.

Neji and Hinata stared at it. The device was clearly beaten up, and a few parts look like it was going to fall out. Wires hung limply over the cover; nuts and bolts appeared to break at the slightest touch; memory chips were bent ever so slightly; and it looked absutely worthless.

"I'd have to say it's a . . . portable game system." Neji concluded.

"Okay," Ed said as he got up and collected everything together, "Let's go back. I'm hungry." He began balancing everything in his arms.

"Maybe it would be better if we help you carry," Neji offered.

"Thanks! 'ppreciate it!" Ed said struggling under the weight.

Neji and Hinata both took some of the load from Ed's hands and began walking back to their house.

"Ah! You're right! Ed's cooking is good!" Hiashi exclaimed as he carefully tasted the food as if it was some sort of instant kill poison.

"You think?" Ed said. His cocky smile reappeared. "Oh! And I can finally pay for the stay at your house!" He made a bee-line to his room.

Okay, one US dollar is about ninety-five yen, Ed calculated in his head, and normally, I would have to pay 'bout twenty dollars a day, and I can slowly pay for the other days I stayed here that I couldn't pay, so I should pay two-thousand yen a day for a month; and after that I can pay 1,900 yen. That should suffice!

Ed took two-thousand yen from the wallet and walked back to the table. He showed Hiashi the money. "This is the payment for my stay." he said firmly.

Hiashi stared at the money and then to Ed's stern face. "I don't want it. I'm really happy if you stay without you paying. How did you get that much money in the first place?"

Ed crossed his arms and glared at him. "I got it from repairing houses. Now, here." Ed said, sticking his arm out with the wad of cash.

"No, no. I can't accept money from you!" Hiashi said smiling.

Ed stubbornly put the money on the table. "Too bad," he muttered childishly, and sat down into the chair next to him.

Hiashi sighed and accepted the money, seeing that there was no other options resulting from the headstrong child. "He's so stubborn. I wonder where he got that from." he said under his breath.

YAH! Chapter 4 done! Hope you liked it! Somehow, I feel like Ed was OOC . . . Please review and vote for if you want the "deadline" thing or not! Next chapter is coming on July 25! The next chapter is menacing! OOOH! And after that, the real plot starts. Well, first the sub-plot (Yes, a nice short sub-plot. One that is as short as Ed. Only 2 chapters.)that has to do a bit with the plot, and then the real plot, or was it two short sub-plots? You'll have to wait and see! 'Cause I've already planned EVERYTHING out! :P

Please press the little button on the bottom and review! PLEASE?! I'm on my hands and knees! (sorta . . . maybe . . . . no . . . Sorry)

. . . There is something wrong with the upload thing. Whenever I decide to change something on it, it doesn't save, no matter how many times I do it. . . Now I'm "mad."