Just so you all know, I AM NOT A SEXIST! I just realized that shinobi and kunoichi are two different types of ninja (male and female, respectively). However, I'm keeping the title because Of Alchemists and Shinobi: The Broken Law sounds better than Of Alchemists and Ninja: the Broken Law, right? Or is it just me?
9-tail Naurto: Read this chapter and all of your questions will be answered. Well, you're only question.
Catwarrior: No, Al is not being shot in that chapter. He had several guns pointed at him, ready to shoot him if the need arises however.
Master Sanosa: I checked the word fuhrer, and found you were right, thanks a bunch.
Disclaimer: I own only this plot idea. If I did own FMA or Naruto, well, they'd suck.
Sorry if the chapter sucks and is a tad short, but this arc needed to be ended, and soon.
Chapter 8: The End of the Beginning
The bright sun pierced through Edward's eyelids as he tried to fall back asleep, but to no avail. He finally gave up the battle for sleep as he looked over the side of his bed and found that Naruto had disappeared. Ed figured that he just woke up earlier and then picked up the book that Atsuko gave him and started reading the information he was supposed to read yesterday. The chapters talked about the importance of chakra control, the concepts behind the kawarimi (replacement), henge (transformation), and bunshin (doppelganger), and how the combination of these three simple techniques can win a battle. He then tried to cram all of this information into his head before his "beloved" sensei would return and drill him with more questions. After getting around five minutes of studying done he heard the door being opened. Ed mentally readied himself for a verbal assault from Atsuko, but none came. Instead, a wooden stick came flying at his head, and hit him square in the forehead, leaving a massive bruise.
"Ow! What was that for?" demanded Ed, becoming incredibly mad.
"A ninja should always be ready for any and every assault, dobe. And that cane is for your physical rehabilitation. Kisara-sama decided that you're well enough to leave the hospital with that cane. Also, you're forbidden to use jutsus for the remainder of this week and the entirety of the next," announced Atsuko, who couldn't help but smiling herself.
"I finally get to leave this hellhole!" yelled Ed, hurriedly trying to get up, without the use of his cane, and almost collapsed before he realized just how valuable the cane was.
"And because this day is your first day out, I'll show you an example of how ninjutsu is properly executed," stated the girl. "Now hurry up and meet me at Training Ground 6." Atsuko then walked out of the room, leaving the door open behind her. A smile was plastered on Ed's face as he hobbled out of his room and out of the hospital.
Then realization slapped him, hard; he had not the slightest inkling of where Training Ground 6 was, and to add to that proverbial slap was the fact that he had no clue where he was at the moment. He started looking around for the people who had hitai-ates on, for they would obviously know where the training ground was. The first person he spotted was a person around his sensei's age with black hair hanging from his hair with red eyes wearing an entirely black uniform with a black mask with purple lines painted from the outer eye down to the cheek hanging around his neck.
"Excuse me, could you tell me where Training Ground 6 is?" politely asked Ed.
"A kilometer and a half northeast," answered the man sullenly.
"Where would north be?" asked Ed. He then felt a kunai fly by his face, and embedded itself in the hospital door behind him.
"Where the kunai's edge is pointing, now shut up before you start annoying me, shrimp. And the people who annoy me die," calmly threatened the man. He then proceeded towards his destination.
"Who are you calling a fly that you could squash with a cough drop wrapper you arrogant bastard?" shouted Ed. The man turned around and their gazes met, and Ed found that he was immensely afraid of the man; so afraid that he couldn't move.
"I'm sorry, did you say something?" asked the man. Ed had no response. "Good, that's what I thought. And here's a present." Ed then found that he could move, and that he was no longer on stable footing. He fell down onto his butt as his cane snapped in two. He looked around for the man but couldn't spot him. Ed tried getting up by using half of the cane, but found that in order to not fall over he had to bend over it. He then tried finding a path that would take him northeast, and it ended up taking Ed half an hour to arrive at Training Ground 6, where he found Atsuko seemingly asleep in a tree branch. Ed snickered to himself and thought of how to get Atsuko back for hitting him over the head with books all those times. He searched the ground around him until he found what he was looking for; a rock. He then picked it up, cocked his arm, and released with enough force to hit his teacher in the head. It hit, and Atsuko's sleeping body disappeared.
'Oh shit.' He quickly swerved his entire body around, looking to see if his teacher was behind him, and she wasn't. He then started scanning the surrounding area for any sign of his sensei. However, if he had been trying to sense her chakra, he would've felt a chakra signal not hidden at all coming at him at a frightening speed.
"Doton: shinju zonshou no jutsu (earth release: inner decapitation technique)!" shouted Atsuko, who burst out of the loam itself and then forced Ed into the ground, so that only his head was above ground. "That's what will happen to you on the battlefield if you act as stupidly as you just did, except instead of ending up like a turnip, you'll end up dead," scolded Atsuko. Ed was literally fuming. "Now before you go off and curse me off, why were you an hour late?"
"Some red-eyed jerk gave me probably the vaguest directions in the history of the world, insulted me, broke my cane, and then almost cut my face with a kunai!" shouted Ed in frustration. Atsuko visually paled when Ed said this. "What, what's wrong?"
"Did this person perhaps have a black and purple mask with him?" asked Atsuko warily. Ed vigorously nodded and was about to say something else before Atsuko yanked him by the hair out of the ground and into a sitting position. The boy yelped in pain and started yelling at her before she grabbed him by the collar and lifted him up. "That person was Uchiha Itachi, probably the strongest ninja in Konohagakure besides the Hokage himself. I'm surprised he let you get away with just being almost cut and your cane being broken. He has a reputation for being…heartless,' explained Atsuko. Now, today, you're true training begins, and for the next two weeks your ass is mine. You are to meet me at this training ground every day for the next week and a half at seven o' clock in the morning. I expect you to have read the chapters of the previous day and to thoroughly know their contents. Now, I'm going to teach you the three techniques you should have read about last night and what they actually look like. You're already familiar with 'bunshin no jutsu' (technique of the doppelganger), so I'll show you the other two first…"
Two weeks later
Ed and Naruto both walked together, in almost perfect synchronization. Naruto was wearing a black t-shirt, dark red sweat pants, open toed blue sandals, a simple white cloth headband, and carried with him his holster of wooden shuriken and kunai, for the younger academy students were not allowed to have metal ones. Ed was wearing a dark blue t-shirt over a fishnet, a red overcoat like the one he wore when he was back home, black sweatpants with a dark blue streak going down the sides of the legs, and black boots. He also carried his holster of wooden shuriken and kunai, but in addition to that he had strapped onto his back a long wooden pole. Then their synchronized walking came to an end, as Ed stopped to gaze at the Ninja Academy building while Naruto walked on ahead. When Naruto noticed that his friend had halted his procession, he hollered loudly at him to hurry up. Ed just sighed at the attitude of his friend who he had grown to like over the past two weeks and followed him into the building, and into the next stage of his life.
"Don't slouch, walk properly, don't smile, don't look proud but don't look defeated either, and whatever you do, don't talk," instructed Al as the military vanguard led them into the center of Mezzeret and closer and closer towards the military base.
"I really don't see what the big deal about posture is, Al. It's not like it's a life or death matter," grumbled Frey, who had regained full control over his emotions and had returned back to his normal state.
"I know this person, and how you present yourself to her actually can be the difference between life and death, now stop talking before we got shot at again," snapped Al. The military escort had shot at the two prisoners if they were walking too fast, too slow, talked, stopped walking, or had tried resisting. Al had gotten his right arm clipped and Frey had his left leg clipped by shrapnel. The bullets were never fired directly at them, but fired close enough so that the impact of the bullets against either a building or ground caused the shrapnel to embed itself into their limbs.
Soon enough the two fugitives were brought up to a huge office building and the military vanguard opened the door and stepped aside as a woman with flowing crimson hair, rose lipstick, and a military uniform with high heeled boots slowly ascended the steps to where Alphonse and Frey were waiting for judgment to be passed upon them.
'So, Celeste, fate brings us together once again; but this time the purpose is slightly different, don't you think?'
When Celeste reached the two teenagers, she quickly looked over the two, and found them to present themselves in a way only two people would know how to.
"Edward, it's a fancy meeting you here. You've certainly changed, but who is this, and where is Al?" sadly greeted the woman.
"This is Frey, my…traveling companion and I don't know who this Edward is, but I'm Alphonse. Nice to meet you again, Celeste," greeted Al, smiling. Celeste narrowed her eyes, and then slapped Alphonse hard across the face, dragging her manicured nails across the soft flesh of his cheek.
"Liar! The Alphonse I knew cared about his brother above even himself! You are obviously an imposter, and a horrible one at that. Don, lock these murderers in the prison, and get the execution room ready, theirs is to take place seven days from today, at this time," snapped the state alchemist. She then spun around on a heel and stalked back towards the building. A man in his mid-thirties with cropped brown hair and grey eyes, presumably Don, roughly pushed the two horrified, shackled prisoners up the steps and then down a flight of steps and into a damp prison hold that smelled of stale urine and mold. He then opened one of the barred doors and shoved the two inside.
"Heh, if you were going to impersonate one of the favorite Elric brothers, you should've at least made somewhat of an effort," spat Don. He then ascended the flight of steps that he had just previously walked down, leaving the two teenagers alone together in a prison cell.
"Damn it I am Alphonse Elric and I don't have a brother!" shouted Al. And with that, he walked into one of the dark, dank corners of the cell and slumped against the wall, losing all certainty of his memories.
'Why does everyone think I have a brother? I don't even know who this Edward is,' thought Alphonse soberly.
"Al, I'm…I'm…scared," whispered Frey. And for the first time in his life, he cried, not out of sadness, but out of fear; fear of death, fear of the unknown, and fear of what would happen to Andrew and Mallory if he died. And so Al did the only thing he knew to do, he embraced Frey as an older brother would a younger brother and silently cried along with him in the darkness of the cell.
PROLOUGE ARC ENDED! THANK GOD! I hated writing Ed in a hospital, it was just so tedious. Well, sorry about the slow update rate, but expect the next one in around a week or two. And in celebration of this arc being ended, I'll reveal one of the pairings that will come into play next chapter:
AlxOC
Next chapter: Edward experiences his first day of ninja school and Al confronts the one thing, or person,he fears the most.
