The Truth Decays

By Marz

Chapter 7

"Casualties?" Ibiki asked, brushing flakes of plaster off his new coat. It didn't really look new anymore. He hadn't performed any of the earth jutsu to reconnect them to the surface, but the ANBU who did hadn't been shy about spraying bystanders with dirt.

"None, sir," the ANBU in the Rhino mask said.

"None?" Ibiki asked.

"None worth mentioning, sir," Rhino said. "Goro broke two fingers trying to 'see through' the genjutsu that had hidden the doors-"

"But no one was crushed or smothered?"

"No, sir. Even the prisoners are fine. Well, as fine as they were before the interrogation department…moved."

"Any sign of Elric?" Ibiki asked.

"We found a tunnel from his cell to the lowest level. He'd covered over the place he went through the floor, but it was hollow underneath. You could hear when you walked on it. Cat went down the tunnel he'd made. She was the only one small enough to fit. It dead-ended at the bottom of the building. We've radioed all other patrols to keep an ear out for seismic activity. We have plenty of practice hunting Stone nin. We'll have him soon, sir."

Ibiki nodded and waved the ANBU away, back to patrolling. He walked through the pitch-dark halls, half listening to the radio chatter as the seals around special prisoners were checked, and the soundness of the buildings' infrastructure was inspected. The roof was certainly never intended to support a thirty-foot column of soil. The news was surprisingly good. Aside from severed gas, sewer, and electrical lines, the building was in good shape. Ibiki doubted they'd be able to convince Elric to raise it again for them.

Was moving the building simply a cover for a much smaller tunneling project? And if the boy could move thousands of tons of earth, why hadn't he simply crushed them all? Had the teenager spared them because he knew they'd have to focus on rescuing people in the building? Injuries would have kept them busier. Ibiki wondered why the boy had done it, as much as how. He considered calling in Uchiha Sasuke or Maito Gai to get a better idea of Elric's motivations, but Gai was out on a mission, and there wasn't time, anyway.

The council would have to be alerted to the interrogation department's new location. He also wanted to call back a few of their earth jutsu specialists from the border to help with the underground search. He considered calling the tech research department that now had Elric's arm, to warn them he might be on the way there, but decided against it. Sending more security to the building would only draw attention to it.

The floor shook for a moment and the volume of radio chatter increased, but it turned out to be nothing--just the building settling again. Ibiki went to his office and found everything was still secure. No paperwork had been damaged, though it had fallen off his desk and scattered all over the floor.

He paused for a moment as a bright side suddenly occurred to him. At least now the council would approve the more interesting methods of interrogation he used to acquire information.

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Ed had lost what little fondness he'd had for spelunking under the Drachman mountain range. Today there was no giant homunculus tunneling after him, but there would probably be something just as bad any minute now. Ed took another shallow breath and scrambled forward. He was gaining a whole new respect for three-legged dogs.

Whether he was lightheaded from the lack of oxygen or the oversized transmutation, he wasn't sure. More than anything he wanted to lay down and sleep. He was exhausted and out of adrenaline, but he knew stopping meant they'd find him, or he'd suffocate.

He found the end of his current tunnel by running his head into it. He focused on the array on his left palm for a moment, using it to excite the trace amounts of neon gas in the air, just enough to give off a faint glow. He supposed he could have transmuted a torch out of something in his cell, but that would've ended badly if one of his tunnels opened up a gas main.

He used the bolt he'd broken off the gurney to scratch out an earth-altering array. He didn't want to risk using the array on his palm if he didn't have to, especially when a slip-up could drop ten thousand tons of earth on his head. The array glowed and the earth trembled a little as a new tunnel opened up before him. He collapsed the old tunnel behind him, just as he had repaired the walls he'd broken to get out of his cell, and erased the arrays he'd used to sink the building. That would keep the bastards guessing.

Ed didn't know where he had started, so he tunneled and crawled until he could barely breathe. After a few hours, or maybe days, Ed started angling towards the surface. He was fairly certain he could avoid coming up through the foundations of a house, since soil and concrete reacted differently.

The reaction climbed in front of him, and a blue and yellow glow suddenly turned to blinding white sunlight. He flinched, but moved forward. He peered out of the tunnel, and took a relieved breath. He'd ended up in a run-down alley instead of in the middle of a prison yard. If they even had prison yards in this place. He decided it didn't matter.

Alright, next goal: find my arm, or maybe find some food…

CLANK!
Ed dropped back into the tunnel, ears straining for the source of the sound. He thought about it for a second. It was the sound of metal striking metal, like a dumpster lid. Somebody laughed. A moment later, a kid was standing at the mouth of the tunnel peering down at him.

"You look like a rabbit," the kid said.

"What do you mean I look like a rabbit?" Ed demanded.

"Cause you got scared and jumped in a hole."

"I'm not scared," Ed said. "You just startled me."

The kid laughed again. Ed was pretty sure the kid was a boy, maybe seven or eight years old, with hair that needed to be cut, and baggy, patched clothes. Not that Ed was in much better shape. His transmuted hospital clothes weren't exactly in the best shape before he went underground. He sort of hoped the smell of freshly turned earth would cover the fact that he hadn't had a shower in…forever. He supposed the upside was that he didn't look very threatening.

"Nope," the kid said. "Rabbit."

Ed sighed. "Not just rabbits live in holes. Badgers and foxes and assorted cool animals also live in ho-…underground."

"Yeah, but you still jumped like a rabbit."

Ed huffed. He probably wasn't going to win this argument. He shouldn't even be having this argument.

"Hey kid, where am I?"

"I'm not a kid. I'm Kaemon and I'm practically grown up!" The kid paused. "What did you ask again?"

"Where am I?" Ed repeated.

"You don't know where you are?"

"No, that's why I asked."

"You're in Konoha," Kaemon said.

"Where in Konoha?"

"By the Iron district."

"Is that near the hospital?" Ed asked.

"No, that's way on the other side of the village. Why? Are you hurt?"

"No, I'm just a bit lost," Ed said as he climbed out of the hole again. The hospital hadn't been far from the interrogation office Ibiki had marched him to. Ed supposed that meant he had time to get some fresh air and plan. Of course, far away for a kid might not be the same as for a bunch of trained assassins.

"What happened to your arm?" the kid asked.

"Some jerks took it," Ed said. "I'm trying to find out where they put it."

"Oh."

"Is there a water fountain around here or something?" Ed asked.

"No, most of the pipes got broke during the invasion. They haven't fixed them in our neighborhood, yet. We got some water at my house, if you want," Kaemon offered. "Mr. Rabbit," he added a moment later.

"Sure, thanks," Ed said, grinding his teeth. At least it was Mister Rabbit.

Ed knew there'd probably be trouble if the kid's parents were home, but it would be suspicious to ask about it. Of course, as they wandered out of the alley into an empty, ruined street, Ed started thinking that nobody's parents were home. Kaemon's home turned out to be a ground floor apartment in a building that was three-quarters collapsed. They climbed over a great deal of rubble and then through a curtain that was acting as a rear wall. There were signs posted all over the place, declaring the place condemned.

"What happened?" Ed asked.

"During the invasion, a giant snake busted through the east gate and knocked down a bunch of buildings. We used to live on the third floor, but that isn't there anymore. We moved in here. The people that used to live here left, anyway."

"How come you didn't leave?"

"There isn't really anywhere to go," Kaemon said. "We were at the emergency shelter for a while, but my mom didn't like it there, so we came back here.

"Why didn't you get a new apartment?"

"There aren't any. And they aren't going to fix this one until the important buildings are done," Kaemon said. "Come on."

He led Ed to a barrel of water under a rain gutter. With some misgivings, Ed drank.

"Half the kids from my school live at the shelter now," the kid said. "Our neighborhood got really smashed up. Junko said a giant toad was fighting the giant snakes, but I don't know if I believe that."

"How come you aren't in school?" Ed asked.

"School's only half-days so we can help fix up the village."

"Oh," Ed said.

The apartment was filled with broken junk, probably scavenged from other ruined buildings. Ed had spent plenty of time hanging around with the down and out, Ishbalan camps or government "shelters" for displaced people. It still bothered him, though. He wondered if the kid really had parents. Some of the junk in the building was probably too big for a seven-year-old to move on his own. Why would you leave your kid alone in a mess like this? Ed wondered, feeling cold and very tired.

"How do you tie your shoes?" Kaemon asked suddenly.

"What?" Ed asked.

"How do you tie your shoes with only one hand?" Kaemon asked again.

"I'm not wearing shoes," Ed said.

"If you had shoes, could you tie them?"

"Yeah." Ed said.

Kaemon wandered into another room and came back with a pair of shoes. Ed was surprised to find they were the right size. He was also pleased to see they were real shoes, and not those strange sandals almost everyone in this country wore. The boy set them in front of Ed and watched expectantly. Ed frowned. He didn't want to be a freak show, but if he got free shoes, it wouldn't be such a bad tradeoff. He pulled the shoes on and tied them. The kid looked awed to see a square knot done single-handed. Apparently he didn't even notice the metallic state of Ed's left foot, which was a relief.

"You got anything to eat?" Ed asked.

Kaemon nodded and vanished into the rubble, returning shortly with a couple of cans and a crank can-opener. He handed the opener to Ed and watched eagerly.

Ed was getting tired of being entertainment. He placed his palm down on top of the can and deconstructed it along the solder line.

"How'd you do that?" Kaemon asked, as Ed gulped down the fruit salad he'd liberated.

"Alchemy," Ed said.

"Open another one!"

Ed opened three more cans and a pickle jar before the kid got bored.

"So is that a can-open-jutsu or something? Why don't you use signs?"

Ed shrugged. "It's not the same thing."

"Oh," Kaemon said.

"But alchemy can do some pretty neat stuff that jutsu can't," Ed said. He put his hand on a cracked plate that was sitting on top of a pile of busted crockery. He focused through the array on his palm and the ceramic glowed and healed. "It's good for fixing things."

"Like apartments?" Kaemon asked eagerly.

Ed nodded. "So how about this? You let me crash here for the night, and tomorrow I'll fix this place up."

"Hmmm… I don't know. My parents might not want strange people in our house."

Ed looked at the curtain that was also a wall.

"I know! You can stay in the fort I built!" Kaemon said. "Come on! Come look!"

Ed followed the kid back out into another not-quite-completely wrecked room in the apartment next door. There was a pile of broken shelving with old blankets lashed randomly to it to make a roof. There were some stained cushions inside, and it didn't smell too much like mold.

"Yeah, you can stay here. It's a really good fort," Kaemon insisted.

Ed thought a single determined mouse could probably bring the whole thing down, but he didn't mention it. It wouldn't be a good idea to insult the person who'd be hiding him from the authorities.

"This'll work," Ed said. "I'm gonna sleep. How about you draw out what the apartment used to look like, so I'll know how to fix it tomorrow?"

"Sure!" the kid said. "But why are you going to sleep now? It's only like two o'clock!"

"It's that late?" Ed said, faking surprise. "I should've been asleep hours ago."

"You're weird," Kaemon said.

"I know," Ed said, crawling into the fort and closing his eyes.

"Goodnight, Mr. Rabbit!" Kaemon called.

Ed ground his teeth a little. At least rabbits weren't known for being short.

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Half a Country Away…

Tanzuka was only a dozen miles off, but Jiraiya decided they would stop for the day in the village they'd just entered. He could tell the brat was exhausted from trying to control the whirling ball of chakra he'd struggled so hard to produce. Of course, the first thing the brat did when he was informed of the break was to complain that he wasn't tired yet.

Naruto argued all the way to the hotel room, but passed out the moment he lay down. Jiraiya watched for a few minutes to make sure he wasn't going to pop back up and go wandering into the midst of missing nin again, and then went looking for a drink. He left a summoned toad to keep a lookout on the roof, just in case, though he didn't think the Akatsuki were that close on their tails at the moment.

There was one bar open, though it was still early in the afternoon. The selection wasn't exactly great, but Jiraiya settled. After he'd had a couple of rounds, he fished a photo and a sketch out of his pocket and showed them to the elderly barkeep.

"Do you recognize either of these people?" Jiraiya asked.

"Her no, him yes," the barkeep said, tapping the sketch.

Jiraiya silently congratulated himself on his artistic abilities. He thought he'd done a pretty good job catching the strange teenager's likeness, though Naruto insisted it was barely passable. They'd had a long argument about the sketch making Ed look too girly, and then about it making Ed look like he was mean, and then about it making Ed look like he was drunk. It annoyed Jiraiya to the point that he took a pencil and paper and told Naruto to do a better sketch if he could. The whiskered boy produced a bizarre, almost cubist picture that may have been a face, or possibly a flower arrangement. And he had the nerve to say "See, like this," when he presented his artistic oddity to the toad sannin.

"That's Edward, isn't it?" the old man asked, bringing Jiraiya back to the present.

"How long ago did you see him?" Jiraiya asked as he slipped the photo of Tsunade and the sketch back into his pocket.

"Oh, Ed hasn't been around for months and months. Sure do miss that kid. He talked funny, but there wasn't nothing around he couldn't fix."

"Talked funny?" Jiraiya asked.

"Yeah, he had a really strong accent, and it wasn't from any dialect I'd ever heard. He never seemed to want to put enough vowels in words, either. Is he in some kind of trouble?"

"He got in a fight, he's hospitalized, and we're trying to find his people," Jiraiya said as he pondered the accent.

He hadn't really noticed anything when he had spoken with the boy, though it was only a half-dozen words in all. There was a definite difference in accents among the elemental countries, but he couldn't think of one that dropped vowels.

"He didn't tell you anything?" the barkeep asked.

"He's not really in a condition to talk," Jiraiya said. "He was still unconscious from blood loss the last time I saw him."

The old barkeep sighed. "That's not a great surprise. He had quite a temper for a little guy."

In his hiding place in Konoha, Ed cursed in his sleep.

"He got into a lot of fights?" Jiraiya asked.

"Never threw a punch when it wasn't called for, as far as I saw, but he could insult and argue well enough even if he didn't always have enough words. We worried that he'd mouth off to a ninja and that would be the end of him."

"A lot of people here knew him?"

"Half the people in the village had him over to fix things: broken windows, ripped clothes, smashed radios. If you could break it, he could put it back together," the barkeep said. "And he didn't charge much, either. He kept to himself mostly, but everybody around here liked him even if he was short-tempered and weird."

"Do you know where he lived when he was here?" Jiraiya asked.

"Yeah, he used to stay with Kioshi, the hermit. Kioshi might be at his house, the last one at the bottom of the valley down that way," the old man said pointing. "He's usually there if he's not off in the woods. Of course, if you ask him where Ed was from, you won't get any sense."

"And why is that?" Jiraiya asked.

"Kioshi makes his way gathering rare things in the forest. I think the day he came across Ed he might've been 'testing' some mushrooms or some such thing. He claimed the kid fell out of a hole in the air, and that a monster appeared."

"A monster?"

The old man nodded. "He said it just appeared in front of Ed as he was getting to his feet. The monster put a hand on the kid's head and then said something Kioshi couldn't understand. The kid said something back, and then the monster laughed and vanished. I don't know if Kioshi thought the kid was blessed or cursed, but he was sure broke up about him leaving."

"And did you ever ask Ed about this monster?" Jiraiya asked.

The old man nodded. "Yes, as a matter of fact; yes, I did. I asked him if he walked out of thin air and talked to monsters. And do you know what he said? Well these aren't his exact words, but with his accent and everything, this is what I got from him. He said 'Everyone talks to monsters.' So I asked him about the monster he was talking to on the day Kioshi found him. And he just got this strange look on his face and he says 'That wasn't a monster. That was just Death.' That kid was some kind of strange at times. But there was nothing he couldn't fix."

Jiraiya nodded, paid his tab and left. He found the house at the bottom of the valley, but no one was there. It looked like no one had been for weeks. He let himself in. There was nothing in the small house that screamed "I explain the origin of Ed", but there were a few things that led Jiraiya to believe the hallucinogenic mushrooms were involved in this.

Someone had used soot from the fireplace to make strange drawings on almost every single wall. A lot of the pictures were of a fanged mouth with blackened teeth. Others outlined a towering, pale creature with spiky hair and horns on its head. It wore the same blackened grin. They weren't the kind of art you'd want in a museum, but Jiraiya recognized the likeness of the Death God when he saw it.

He considered going into the woods to look for this Kioshi fellow, but decided against it. He had to bring Konoha their fifth Hokage, first. He walked back to his hotel thinking about the strange things others had seen Ed do. He wondered what a person could say that would make Death laugh.

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Ed felt his lungs freeze as he came apart. A moment later he was standing before the Gate. It was open, still, and thousands of thread-thin arms were still reaching out, snatching at him as he tried to order his thoughts, tried to remember why he had come. Something else moved, catching his eye. He turned to look at it, a blur except for the leg and the arm it had taken from him. It was still grinning.

"I know why you're here," it said.

Ed nodded. Suddenly, he did too. They had to stop the reaction. There must be some way to shut down the array from the inside… The grinning thing shook its head.

"You know there's nothing you can trade for that knowledge. There isn't enough of you. One small life isn't worth all that."

"Then how does their father know what to do?" Ed demanded. "And who are you calling small?"

"Father has traded millions of lives for his Alchemy," it said.

"But those lives don't belong to him!" Ed objected.

The grinning thing was silent.

"What if I give my life, and you tell Al how to stop it?" Ed said.

"That's nowhere near equivalent," it said. "You are two grains of sand trying to stop a flood."

"So you're saying the only way to stop them is to do what they're doing? To steal all those people's souls?"

"You might not have to steal them," the thing said. "If you ask, they might help."

"I don't have time to knock on a million fxxking doors and ask for peoples' souls!"

"There is only one door that matters," it said, waving Ed's right arm towards the Gate.

Ed's eyes slid open and he saw the roof of the 'fort'. He felt like he'd just closed them a second ago, but the light coming in was early morning, not afternoon. He shifted and sat up. His face felt puffy and he couldn't really breathe through his nose. He looked at the empty socket where there should have been an arm. The Gate's words still rang in his ears. He could still see its grin when he closed his eyes. He kept them open and staring. There were some kind of cocoons along the seams of the sheet that made up the roof. He wondered if they were moths. He was pretty sure there were moths in this world. An hour later he heard a familiar voice.

"Hey, Mr. Rabbit! Are you still here?" Kaemon called.

"Yeah," Ed said, stumbling out of the fort. "I'm still here, even if I shouldn't be."

"What?" Kaemon asked, climbing over piles of junk to get to him.

"Never mind," Ed said. "You got the picture of the apartment?"

"Of course!" the boy said. "Come on! Hurry up! Everything's still broken!"

Ed could only nod in agreement.

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No trail was found even with the ANBU scouring the village the entire night. It didn't help matters much when dozens of gawkers came trampling into the area to 'see' the vanished building. It helped even less when the Daimyo's envoy came to see what was so interesting.

The envoy had been invited to tour the village to reassure the Daimyo that Leaf was once again secure and able to meet all Fire countries' military needs. So instead of mentioning an escaped prisoner with massive destructive potential, the Leaf tour guide had pleasantly explained that the interrogation department had been moved underground for security reasons. The village council had perpetuated the lie, but the envoy didn't entirely buy it. He extended his stay through the end of the week, so a general alert, warning the civilians about Edward Elric's true abilities, could not be dispensed. They'd had to settle for a warning about a short, one-armed shoplifter who was wanted for questioning.

Of course, the majority of upper-rank ninja were told what was going on when they checked in at the mission office, but that left a lot of gaps in coverage. If Elric had any sense, he'd take advantage and be halfway to the border by now.

Ibiki then received a radio transmission indicating Edward Elric had no sense at all.

"He built a house?" Ibiki repeated.

He didn't have any trouble finding it. Most of the buildings in the Iron district had been made uninhabitable, if not flattened, during the invasion. The street now had a single whole structure, and it definitely wasn't native to the village.

The exterior walls were heavy stone blocks leading up five stories to a sharply peaked roof, edged with vicious-looking gargoyles. The windows were narrow and high. The ground floor entrance was a forbidding arch with massive stone dogs stationed on either side, guarding a relatively short staircase.

A small boy (too small even to be Elric) and his parents were sitting on the steps, with an ANBU making sure they didn't wander off. When the parents noticed Ibiki, they got very nervous. The father got to his feet, and bowed so low he almost tipped over.

"Sir, please. We didn't know he was hiding a missing nin. He doesn't even understand what one is, and he did tell us, but we thought he was making things up. He used to have an imaginary friend, you see-"

The man stopped babbling as Ibiki's gaze moved from him to the boy.

"Do you know who I am?" he asked the boy.

"You're a ninja," the boy said. "I'm Kaemon."

The boy seemed nearly fearless and was trusting even for a civilian child. The master of interrogation doubted it would've been much of an effort for Elric to trick him into helping. Ibiki nodded and took a picture out of his pocket. It was a still of Ed from the security monitors in his cell.

"Do you know who this is, Kaemon?" Ibiki asked.

The boy nodded. "That's Mr. Rabbit."

Ibiki raised an eyebrow. "He said his name was Rabbit?"

"No, I just called him that cause he jumped into a hole in the ground."

"And where was this hole?"

"A couple of blocks that way. I scared him pretty good. He came over and slept in my fort, and then he fixed up our apartment. It's not as tall as it used to be, but it has cool stuff on it now. He wouldn't put in the slide, though. He said if there was a slide from the roof, somebody would fall off it and break their neck."

"How did he fix your house?" Ibiki asked, looking up at the building. It was a little smaller than the interrogation department, but that was still a massive thing to pull off.

"He took a stick and drew a big circle all around the outside, and then he drew some squiggles in it. It wasn't real letters or anything. And then he leaned down and put his hand on it. He only has one hand. His whole other arm is gone! Did he get it chopped off-"

"The building," Ibiki prompted.

"Right. He drew the circle and then he put his hand on it and the whole thing glowed and then it grew up, like these little flashing square things until it was a whole building, and then the light faded and it was done. And then he had me help him erase the circle so we didn't accidentally knock it down again. And then he left."

"Did he say where he was going?"

"He said he was going to find his arm," the boy said.

"Anything else?" Ibiki asked.

"He sweared some," the boy said.

"What exactly did he say?"

"Do I get to say?" the boy asked excitedly, looking to his parents for permission.

The father nodded warily.

"He said 'those fxxking bastards better not have broken it, or he was gonna fxxking deconstruct their dxxks and they'd be pissing out their xxxes for the rest of their miserable lives.'"

"Anything else?" Ibiki asked.

The boy nodded. "He said 'oh shit, don't repeat that, kid. Your mom's head will explode.' But it didn't. She just got mad and put soap in my mouth."

Ibiki nodded. So Elric was going to lurk until he could find his arm? That gave them plenty of opportunity to recapture him. Of course, mentioning the arm could be a ruse. And why could someone who could make an entire building not make another mechanical arm?

Ibiki walked up the steps and wandered through the building. It looked stable enough. But why do it? It was like throwing up a "come get me" sign. No logical person made decisions like this. How could a person like that survive, much less unnoticed, for any length of time in the shinobi nations? Whatever the answer was, Ibiki doubted he'd get it without strapping Edward down to another table, and maybe not even then.

An ANBU in a Koi mask appeared in front of him. "Sir, the civilians wish to know what you intend to do with them."

Ibiki thought he should probably put them in jail, to make sure they learned the importance of security in a hidden village, but they didn't have the time or the space or the personnel for something like that.

"Move the family to an emergency shelter. Make sure they stay there. Leave a team here disguised to look like them. He may come back."

The ANBU nodded.

Ibiki continued inspecting the building. Outside, he could hear the little boy start to cry as the family received their instructions.

"But it's our house! It's not fair!" he sobbed as his parents tried to hush him.

Ibiki wondered what it would take to make Edward cry.

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Author's note: Thanks, everyone, for the info about the technology in Naruto world! This chapter took forever to write. If it was worth the wait, let me know! The Review button is down there.