Author's Note: Hi everyone! Sorry for the delay in uploading! Matsuko didn't want to cooperate with me. There's only a couple more chapters in the Academy Arc before we get the ball rolling into the start of the series. As always, please let me know what you think! Ciao!
Disclaimer: I do not own FullMetal Alchemist or Naruto. Sadly.
Chapter Seven
Theories
"A transmutation circle is a conduit which focuses and dictates the flow of power, tapping into the energies that already exist within the earth and matter. It represents the cyclical flow of the world's energies and phenomena and turns that power into manipulable ends."
Naruto stared.
And stared.
And stared.
"Ugh, just take it!" Matsuko scowled, cheeks pink. She waved the bento in the blonde's face, willing him to take it. When he failed to reach out and grab it, she huffed and shoved it into his chest. Naruto squawked and was forced to juggle it before it tumbled into the grass at his feet. Grumbling from embarrassment, Matsuko stomped off to go grab a spot under their usual tree.
"H-hey, wait up!"
Matsuko ignored the blond's flustered response and plopped down onto the warm grass of the Academy yard. She'd noticed during the first few weeks at the Academy that Naruto never brought his own lunch and assumed that her previous assumptions about the boy not having anyone to look after him were correct. He never talked about his home life or any family and Matsuko paid strict attention to the way that the other children and adults acted around him. They seemed to react negatively in his presence and attacked with pointed glares and sharp words. Matsuko couldn't for the life of her understand why.
Naruto was a nice boy, if a bit rambunctious and loud, but that didn't deserve those looks of hatred. She'd even noticed that Iruka-sensei was more cold towards the boy than he was towards any other student. Matsuko wasn't necessarily one to stick her nose into anyone else's business, but it was a case she wanted to solve. Plus, she always hated that depressed look he got on his face when he thought nobody was looking.
"Matsuko, you didn't have to-"
Matsuko glanced up from where she was unpacking her lunch and shot Naruto an unimpressed look. He shifted from foot to foot in front of her sheepishly, seemingly cowed by her expression. "I wanted to. Besides, this way we can both eat lunch without worrying about being hungry in an hour since we don't have to share just one. My brother and I aren't the best cooks, so it probably won't taste all that great, but it's better than starving."
"I bet it tastes great, believe it!" Naruto sat down next to her gracelessly and opened his bento, cracking his chopsticks and shoving food into his mouth at an inhuman pace.
Matsuko grimaced in distaste and took a bite of her own food like a normal human being would. She chewed for a moment and tried not to make a face at the flavors coating her tongue. What she'd said wasn't a lie. Neither she nor her brother could cook very well and it definitely showed. Since Matsuko'd wanted to keep the theft of her aunt's money to a minimum since the incident, she and her brother had started to cook their own food instead of ordering takeout. Her aunt was at least kind enough to graciously buy groceries, but somehow always seemed to "forget" to cook for anyone but herself.
Ever since their heartwarming talk three months ago, their aunt was around less than she had been before, if that were even possible. She would leave for work early in the morning sometime during Matsuko and her brother's workout and wouldn't come home until well into the night. Matsuko didn't know where she was or what she was doing and she didn't really care. As long as the spiteful woman was out of her life, she would be happy. The last time she had even seen the woman was the day after Matsuko accidentally blew a hole into the floor, and that was only to be in the apartment when the landlord got there. Apparently damages to the apartments weren't totally uncommon due to overpowered superhumans called shinobi, and the landlord had repaired the damage easily.
Matsuko still wasn't sure what to think about the fact that her alchemy had even worked in the first place. Sure, she might have miscalculated the correct layout of the transmutation circle, but it had worked nonetheless. When her brother had asked her about the incident, she'd admitted to wanting to test out a scientific theory. Rock Lee had taken it without question, but politely asked her not to blow up their apartment anymore. He was curious about how she'd done it and Matsuko had tried to explain, but she was absolutely terrible at teaching things to people. Which was probably why her brother always took charge of their workouts.
Alchemy apparently didn't exist in Konoha, at least not from what she knew. Shinobi closely guarded their secrets afterall. Which had led her to another hypothesis. Could anyone activate a transmutation circle with chakra? She wasn't sure, but she wanted to find out. Her eyes shifted over to her blond companion. She also wanted to spend some more time with her friend so, two birds-one stone and all that jazz.
"Hey Naruto?" Matsuko interrupted one of his many ramblings. Kiba was out sick that day, so the two of them were alone that afternoon.
"Hm?" Naruto hummed around a mouthful of food. His big, blue eyes stared up at her from his hunched over position and she noticed that he'd almost cleaned out the whole bento. Maybe she and her older brother were better cooks than she thought? Matsuko glanced down at her own half-full lunch and mentally cringed. Nah, definitely not.
"What do you have planned for tonight?" She asked, knocking back her canteen of water to try and wash the overly salty taste out of her mouth. Rock Lee always got a little too trigger happy with seasonings.
"Uh, I'll probably just hang out at home. Or something." Naruto finished lamely and dropped his chopsticks into the now empty container in front of him. "Why?"
"You wanna come over to my place for dinner? My brother and I have training right after class lets out, but you could come by later tonight if you wanted."
Matsuko was a little nervous if she was being perfectly honest. Yes, Naruto was her friend, (her best friend, she'd admit at this point), but she'd never invited someone over to her apartment before. What if he said no? She looked at him out of the corner of her eye.
"The food won't be that great, but you could meet my brother and-"
"I'd love to!" Naruto all but screamed next to her. He was grinning from ear to ear with a bright, happy glint in his eyes. Matsuko smiled and nodded her head at his easy acceptance.
"Alright. Come by around 8pm or so." Matsuko paused and tapped her chin in thought, muttering to herself. "That should give us enough time to shower and start cooking. We'll have to cut training a little short, but big brother will deal."
"I'll be there! Believe it!"
"I look forward to it, Naruto." And she did. He was her first ever friend after all.
"Aniki, that's too much garlic!" Matsuko screamed at her brother, diving across the small kitchen island to snatch up Rock Lee's shirt. She tried to wrench him back away from the stove, but that only made things worse. Matsuko watched with wide, frightful eyes as if in slow motion, the container of garlic in her brother's hands went flying out of his grasp and the lid popped off in midair.
"No! Grab it!" Her scream came too late and the container fell right into the skillet and upended itself into the half-cooked stir fry. Matsuko froze with one hand outstretched as if she could somehow still catch it. Her mouth opened and closed with no sound coming out and after a moment, she turned a glare to her brother. "Why were you using garlic? The recipe doesn't even call for it!"
Matsuko picked up the heavy cookbook on the kitchen island and waved it in his face. Rock Lee turned to her sheepishly and scratched the back of his head. "Sorry, Matsuko-chan. I thought we were supposed to add it."
Rolling her eyes, Matsuko dropped the book back onto the island and rounded it to gently prod her brother away from the stove. She pointed to the other pot on the burner with an exasperated look at her aniki. "You're not allowed to touch the stir fry since you might accidentally poison it. And I don't want to kill Naruto, so you're on noodle duty."
Rock Lee punched the air in front of him in ready acceptance, not at all deterred by the small disaster. "Yosh! I will not let you down. If I cannot cook these noodles to perfection, then I shall do eight hundred jumping jacks!"
Matsuko sweatdropped and shuffled away from the aura of fierce determination coming from her brother, shifting her attention back to the food on the stove. The two of them were attempting (key word being attempt) to cook a simple dish of Yaki Udon, but they were managing to screw even that up. Matsuko assumed that she and her brother had somehow managed to anger some kind of food Kami and now everything they cooked turned out horribly.
She wasn't mad at her brother, not at all. She was just nervous about inviting over her first ever friend. Matsuko knew that Naruto would eat literally anything put in front of him (except maybe vegetables), but she didn't want to turn him off from ever coming back. She had to make sure he didn't starve, afterall. Especially since she feared that they only thing the boy ever ate was instant ramen, and that certainly couldn't be healthy.
Matsuko grimaced as she tried to spoon out as much of the garlic as possible. Most of it had already dissolved into the pork and vegetables and she decided to write it off as a lost cause. Hopefully Naruto liked garlic. A lot of garlic.
"I am sure that he will not be deterred!" Rock Lee placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder and shoved a thumbs up in her face. He always managed to pick up on her moods like it was nothing. They were so close to each other that they could read each other's thoughts and feelings like an open book. "Anyone would be lucky to have a friend like you, so do not worry so much little sister."
Matsuko deflated and patted her brother's hand in silent thanks. Normally she wasn't so self-conscious and didn't care much about what other people thought. However, she was slightly worried about chasing off her first friend. Pouting, Matsuko shot her brother a small smile. "I guess you're right. I'm worrying for nothing."
"Exactly!" Rock Lee gave her one of his bright smiles and shuffled forward to lift the lid off the big pot of noodles. Steam engulfed his face and his dark eyes watered at the contact before widening. His head turned to stare at her warily. "Ah, Matsuko-chan, should the noodles be turning this color?"
Alarmed, Matsuko jerked forward to lean over her brother's shoulder. Her mouth dropped at the sight of black, crispy noodles floating in the boiling water. "How did they burn? In water?!"
It was safe to say that the rest of the food preparation didn't turn out too great. Both Matsuko and her brother had managed to ruin one of the simplest dishes to make and had to throw it all out. It was beyond the point of being edible and Matsuko glared down at the styrofoam cups sitting innocently on the kitchen counter. She didn't want to tempt fate twice in one day, so she and Rock Lee pulled out the only easy-to-make, edible food they had.
"Naruto's going to love this." She muttered darkly to herself. Matsuko could hear Rock Lee in the living room behind her completing his eight hundred jumping jacks as "penance" for burning the noodles.
She'd tried to insist that it wasn't his fault and was in fact, simply their bad luck. But he wouldn't take no for an answer and so she'd just shrugged at him and let him continue. She would have joined him, but she'd had to find something to feed their guest. Her thoughts were interrupted by a knocking at the front door and she blinked before stumbling her way over to it.
"I will heat these up!" Her brother called out to her retreating back, apparently done with his exercise, and she waved a hand behind her in silent agreement. That was fast.
Matsuko wrenched open the door and blinked at the mass of green that suddenly engulfed her vision. Shifting her gaze over the top of a potted cactus, she met the blue eyes of Naruto. He'd changed out of the bright orange shirt and pants he was wearing earlier. Now he wore an orange (surprise) and blue hoodie and dark pants with his usual pair of big, mad scientist-like goggles wrapped around his forehead. Matsuko still didn't know why he wore those, but it suited him, she supposed.
"Hey," she greeted, eyeing the pointy looking cactus warily. Naruto could be a total klutz sometimes and she feared for her imminent safety.
"Sorry I'm a little late," Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly before extending the cactus to her. "I stopped to buy this as a thank you gift. For inviting me."
Matsuko's eyes softened and she took the plant from the boy. It was common courtesy to bring some kind of gift, no matter how small, to give to the hosts of a dinner invitation. It was normally reserved for the more traditional and formal types of invitations, but Matsuko didn't mind the thoughtful gift.
"Thanks." She grinned and stepped back to hold the door open. "Come in. You can put your shoes wherever."
"Something smells good." Naruto brushed past her into the genkan to slip off his sandals and Matsuko sweatdropped at the comment. She shut the door and turned to dig around inside the small entryway closet for communal pair of house shoes. They normally didn't have visitors, but her aunt always kept some around for some reason.
Rock Lee rounded the wall separating the entryway and the kitchen and Matsuko gestured between the two boys awkwardly with the hand not holding a cactus. "Aniki, this is Naruto Uzumaki. Naruto, this is my brother Rock Lee."
"It is nice to meet a dear friend of my little sister!" Rock Lee exclaimed, jumping forward to excitedly shake Naruto's hand. He always preferred handshakes over customary bowing for some reason and Matsuko liked to think that he had too much personality for a simple, stiff bow. "I have heard very much about you!"
Matsuko interrupted before Naruto could respond, stepping past her brother towards the kitchen. She turned her head before disappearing around the corner and stated cheekily, "aniki ruined dinner, so I hope you don't mind having instant ramen instead."
Rock Lee squawked at her ruthless accusation and Naruto gave an excited whoop. "My favorite!"
Matsuko was glad that they had a small stockpile of instant ramen in their kitchen. She wasn't the biggest fan of it and neither was her brother, but sometimes they ate it out of pure necessity. It was either that, or starve, or eat whatever inedible concoction they drafted up in the kitchen. However, Naruto had no problem eating his way through three containers on his own. Matsuko had seen the longing expression that the blond had shot at his initial empty cup of ramen and forced two more containers down his throat. Well, "forced" was probably the wrong word since he scarfed down the food rather excitedly.
It didn't surprise Matsuko at all that her brother and Naruto got along so well. They were both pretty similar in personality traits and had no problem talking (more like shouting) animatedly to each other across the table. Matsuko had just shaken her head at their boisterous antics fondly. The atmosphere never got awkward and she thanked her luck at having such a kind and accepting brother. She could probably bring a random stranger in off the streets and Rock Lee would accept them with open arms.
Matsuko had stood up from the table at one point while the two boys were engaged in conversation to momentarily retreat into her room. She emerged a few moments later with her journal and chalk in her hand. Naruto was in the middle of retelling the most recent prank he'd pulled on Iruka.
"-and he picked it right up and bit into it! You shoulda seen his face when he got a mouth full of shaving cream instead of red bean paste. And he calls himself a ninja? Hah, priceless!"
"Wow! How did you manage to get him to eat it?" Rock Lee asked in awe. He leaned across the table to gape at the blond and Naruto grinned devilishly.
"I stuck a note on it saying that it was from a secret admirer. What a sap!"
"Yeah, and I had to stay back and help you clean the classroom for hours because Iruka-sensei accused me of helping you." Matsuko pouted, coming to stand next to the dining room table.
"But you did help me!" Naruto exclaimed and Matsuko looked pointedly away from her brother's stare, whistling innocently.
'Wow, such an interesting ceiling.' She thought, eyes steadily on the white ceiling above her.
"Is that why you were late to meet me for training last week?" Rock Lee asked his sister. When she didn't answer, he blinked before pointing at her accusingly. "You told me that you were staying behind to ask your sensei about that afternoon's lesson and that I should start without you!"
"Huh?" Matsuko feigned confusion and looked at her brother like he was crazy. "What are you talking about?"
Rock Lee gaped like a fish and Matsuko forced down the smile twitching at her lips. Her brother was so fun to mess with sometimes. She turned her attention to Naruto and held up her leather journal. "Naruto? I was hoping that you could help me with something."
"Sure! What is it?" The blond readily accepted and Matsuko sweatdropped at his exuberance.
"Well, I kinda wanted to test out a theory that I have. It's pretty simple actually, I just need you to touch something with your chakra to see if it will work for you."
"If what will work for me?" Naruto asked in confusion.
They had gone over chakra at the Academy at the beginning of the month. Iruka hadn't taught them a whole lot, since they wouldn't learn the jutsu's needed to graduate until their third year. He had, however, taken them out into the yard after lunch and instead of their usual classes, Iruka showed them how to access their chakra. It had been boring and slow going as the whole class sat in the sun for hours and meditated to find their chakra. Some of the kids found theirs pretty quickly and Matsuko was one of them. After all of the chakra control exercises that she had done the year prior, it was pretty simple for her.
Naruto, however, had been absent that day. Afterwards he'd confided in her that he'd had to go talk to the third Hokage about his chakra instead of learning about it in class like everyone else. Matsuko had been surprised at first to learn that he was actually quite close with the Hokage, but she was glad that he had other people in his life to care for him too. He deserved it. Apparently the Hokage told him that he had too much chakra, and learning chakra control was going to be almost impossible for him. And it showed in class when Iruka would have them sit in the yard and practice sticking leaves to their foreheads. Naruto would always end up shredding his to pieces.
"Well," Matsuko mentally shook herself out of her thoughts and held up her chalk. "It'd probably be easier if I just showed you."
"Matsuko-chan…," Rock Lee eyed the piece of chalk in her hand warily. She hadn't attempted alchemy again since the incident months ago, and she'd taken the time to figure out what it was that she'd done wrong. When she found out the problem, she'd almost bashed her head through the wall at her own idiocy.
"Don't worry, aniki." Matsuko grinned cheekily at her brother. "I know what I'm doing this time."
Rock Lee shifted slightly away from her in his chair, but gave her a thumbs-up anyway. She pretended that she didn't notice the wary enthusiasm. He may have been cautious and a little bit sceptical, but he believed in her anyway and she loved him for it.
"Just please do not cause any more damage to the apartment."
"You blow up a floor once," Matsuko mumbled to herself and rounded the table to sit at the head of it in between the two boys. She set down her supplies and reached out her arms to sweep the mess of empty containers and chopsticks to the other side of the table.
"Blow up?" Naruto asked wide-eyed. She also pretended to ignore the sudden excited gleam in his eyes.
Shifting the skinny piece of chalk in her hand, she flipped through a few pages of her journal. Matsuko didn't really need to reference it at this point since she had made sure to memorize the simple transmutation circle, but she kept it open just in case. Touching the tip of the chalk to the wooden surface of the table, she began to draw a perfect circle. Then she added another circle inside of the first one. That was what she had failed to include the first time.
The pointed edges of a square extended out of the second circle and touched the lines of the first one. And then inside of that square, she drew a diamond, taking special care to keep it strictly inside both the square and second circle. When she had first attempted to create that specific transmutation circle, she never added the second circle and that was why it had impoaded into itself.
Both the square and the diamond, used for easily manipulating wood and rock, had overpowered each other and caused a destabilization of the floor's matter. The extra circle that she added would essentially be like a wall separating the energy from the square and diamond. It would ensure that they wouldn't overpower each other by setting one off before the other instead of both at the same time.
Matsuko sat back in her chair and dropped the chalk next to her journal and took a moment to survey the transmutation circle before nodding to herself. It was perfect.
"What's that supposed to be?" Naruto leaned his elbows onto the table and leaned forward to prod a finger at the chalk lines.
"Wait, don't touch yet!" Matsuko warned and moved his hand away. "It's...a scientific experiment."
"What for?" His blue eyes stared up at her with that gleam back in his eyes. "Is it gonna blow up?"
"No." Matsuko facepalmed, unknowingly leaving a chalk imprint on her forehead. But then she paused and pursed her lips. "At least, it shouldn't. I think."
Rock Lee not-so-subtly scooted his chair so far back from the table that he was almost in the living room. Matsuko shot him an unimpressed look, but her brother just shot her a double thumbs-up and encouraging grin. Even though he was so far away, she knew that if anything were to go wrong that he would rush in and pull her out again. So she rolled her eyes good naturedly.
"Alright, Naruto." Matsuko clapped her hands at the sudden rush of excitement. "Remember the chakra control exercises we learned in class? How to reach in and draw it out?"
"Of course I do!" Naruto thumped his fist against his chest confidently.
"Okay. Now I just need you to place your hands on the edge of the outer circle-no don't smudge the chalk! Okay, good. Now just feed chakra into it. You'll be able to tell if it's working."
Naruto's face scrunched up in concentration and Matsuko watched the transmutation circle intently. After a few minutes of nothing happening, she pouted.
"Are you feeding your chakra into it?"
"Yeah. Is something supposed to be happening right now?" Naruto's attention was starting to wane. Matsuko knew that he didn't like to sit still for very long and she frowned down at the transmutation circle. Why wasn't it working?
"Let me try."
Matsuko gently waved Naruto's hands away and he withdrew them without complaint. She laid her hands onto the outer circle and closed her eyes to concentrate. Her chakra came to her easily and she guided it down her arms and into her hands, holding her breath. Perhaps the first time had been a fluke?
The transmutation circle grabbed at her chakra greedily. Matsuko's eyes snapped open and resisted the urge to squeak in surprise. It had felt weird the first time and now was no different. She heard a "whoa" from Naruto as the transmutation circle lit up in blue, almost white, light. The sound of static electricity reverberated into the room and the surface of the table encased in the circle moved.
Matsuko didn't notice Rock Lee move to stand beside her, too busy gaping at the pulse of energy she felt humming under her hands. The wooden surface moved, slithering like a snake, but didn't do anything other than that. Matsuko frowned. Why wasn't it taking the shape of a small bird like she'd wanted it to? She could still feel the connection from the transmutation circle and her own body, but wasn't sure what she was supposed to do now.
Maybe if she tried to direct it…?
Brow pinched in concentration, Matsuko fed another flicker of chakra into the transmutation circle. When it didn't immediately snatch at it, she pushed it towards the writhing mass of wood. She attempted to direct the atoms of the wood into shifting shape and almost pulled back her hands in surprise when it listened.
The manipulated wood danced as it constricted and she guided it to take shape. The end result looked sloppy, but when the light faded, she withdrew her hands in awe.
"Holy shit. It worked!"
"Matsuko-chan, language."
"Yeah, yeah." She hastily waved off her brother's polite scolding, mind still focused on what lay in front of her. The surface of the table had extended up to form a small, grotesque statue of a bird. It wasn't perfect and the details were horrid enough to scare a small child, but Matsuko didn't care. It had worked!
Leaning back into her chair, Matsuko closed her eyes, deep in thought. 'So the transmutation circle is more like an outline or a list of instructions telling the atoms what to do. But I have to guide it into what I want?'
It made sense, in a way. She could draw up a transmutation circle to construct or deconstruct wood into changing its shape, but it wouldn't do anything in particular unless she manipulated it into what she wanted. But then why couldn't Naruto do it? He may not be good at chakra control, but she believed him when he said he was doing it. What was so different about her?
She would ask her brother to try, just to eliminate another probability, but immediately tossed out the thought since it was difficult for him his call upon chakra. Maybe she should ask someone else? But who else did she trust besides the two sitting next to her? Kiba, perhaps, but she didn't know him as well as she did Naruto. Kiba tended to do his own thing sometimes.
"-llo?" The feeling of something poking roughly into her shoulder drew her out of her thoughts. Blinking, she turned to the blond next to her as he continued to dig his finger into her flesh. "HELLO?!
Matsuko flinched away from Naruto and rubbed at her now ringing ear. "You didn't have to yell, jeez."
"Heh, heh, sorry." Naruto withdrew his finger. "But you weren't responding. I thought you died or something."
"I was just deep in thought." She rolled her eyes, turning to shoot a smug look at Rock Lee. He had that look on his face again- like someone had slapped him upside the head with a fish- as he gawked at the table. "See, I told you it wouldn't blow up."
Her brother simply blinked down at her for a moment before he jumped and flashed her the most excited smile she'd ever received from him. "Yes, you were correct! I knew you could do it, Matsuko-chan! I am very proud."
Matsuko grinned back at him and punched the air in excitement. She was absolutely euphoric. The possibilities of alchemy seemed endless to her now and she vowed to spend as much time pouring over the subject as she possibly could. There wasn't any information on alchemy outside of her notes though, so she'd just have to wing it.
"Hey," Naruto piped up, laying a hand on his stomach, "I'm hungry again."
"What? How? You just ate!"
"Matsuko-chaaan, I want more ramen!"
"Naruto, adding the honorific to my name isn't going to make me feed you any more ramen!"
"But I'm hungry!"
"No, you need to eat something healthier!"
"But all you have is instant ramen!"
"Wha-? Hey, don't go through other people's kitchen cabinets, it's rude!"
As she fought to tug the container of instant ramen out of Naruto's hands, she checked family dinner off as a success with hope for many more to come.
