The Truth Decays
By Marz
Chapter 10
Konoha Movie Theater Storage Room…
Ed gritted his teeth as he pulled the arm into place. He'd had to make a rack to hold it in position, since there was no helpful second pair of hands around. He checked one last time in the mirror, gritting his teeth. Reconnecting his nervous system to his automail always left him in a temporary state of shock. If any ninja came upon him in the next few minutes, he'd be almost helpless. Of course the same thing was possible every time he slept.
This felt more ominous though, and he knew why. If the leaf ninja had done something to his automail while they were trying to figure out how it worked, Ed probably wouldn't be able to fix it. He couldn't put this off forever though.
"Alright…one…two…three…" he mumbled as he tightened the last bolt into place.
CLANK!
He was just thinking It never clanked when Winry did it, when the world went white. Ed did his best not to flail as his brain told him that the right side of his body was on fire. His teeth clenched and sweat poured down his face. He focused, flexing his automail arm and moving each finger to make sure they still worked. The metal limb was stiff and slow, but it loosened up. When he was sure he had full range of motion, he picked up the wrench and screw drivers he had transmuted and tightened everything down.
Putting his arm back on left him feeling more exhausted than the whole effort to steal it back. He gave the cover plates one last once over and turned out the lights. He lay down on the bed that had once been broken theater seats. He'd transmuted a pretty comfy hideout for himself in a neglected back room in the movie theater. There was even a bathroom one floor up. He figured the heavy foot traffic and horrible burned popcorn smell would throw them off his trail. The only downside was the noise.
He could hear the end theme of the movie playing and people cheering. Did they think the actor could hear them or something?
Ed gritted his teeth and rolled over. His whole right side was tingling and twitching. He didn't remember the shock and muscle tremors ever lasting this long before. They must have broken something, or twisted something when they took his automail off.
"Bastards," he muttered, rolling over again.
He tried to picture a way to get them back. What kind of stunt could he pull that would affect only their military?
I could burn down the ugly sandal factory. That would show those crazy toe exhibitionists.
Of course he didn't want to waste a lot of time carrying out this theoretical revenge. He'd already gathered or transmuted the stuff he thought he'd need once he escaped the village. He could leave anytime, but he wanted to get some rest first.
He considered looking for his watch and his notebooks, but he didn't really need either of them. The things he'd written he could re-write, and the leaf jerks had no chance of understanding his native language, much less figuring out his coded note books. The watch though…
Maybe I can finally let the damn thing go…
He still couldn't sleep. After another half hour he gave up and got up. He could hear the movie starting again, and decided to see what everyone couldn't stop laughing at.
He transmuted his clothes, with a simple clap of his hands, and grinned a little at that. He ended up in a high collared coat (that sort of covered the bruise on his jaw), slacks, and a watch-cap that hid his hair. As an afterthought he picked up a couple of cracked projector lenses and transmuted a pair of glasses. They were as geeky as he could make them, recalling the pair Sheska, the living library had worn, years ago in central.
Confident in his disguise he listened by the wall for a moment before transmuting a hole. There was no one in the corridor, so he closed up the wall and walked toward the theater. The large room was already dark, but only about a quarter full. Ed found a seat near the back and slumped down.
He had survived about half the awful film when he noticed an old man two rows ahead was turning around to sneak looks at him. Ed pulled his collar up a little more, and tried to sink further into his seat. He didn't wasn't to have to run just yet, though he was starting to admit to himself that sneaking into the movies while he was the subject of a massive man hunt was not his greatest idea.
The old man got up and set about stepping on toes and bumping knees as he worked his way out to the isle. It wasn't exactly a stealthy exit. Ed sighed. It was possible the old guy was just on his way to the bathroom.
He's probably going to get the ninja. You don't want to get caught just because you're lazy, the voice in his head scolded.
Ed huffed again, and was really about to consider getting up and running for it when the old man came back. He was carrying a soda cup. Ed was all ready to dismiss his paranoia when he noticed the old man wasn't going back to his original seat. He was coming up the isle toward Ed. The ice in his soda cup sloshed and clinked and half a dozen voices hissed shhhhhhhh! as the old man continued on his rattling course. He shuffled into Ed's row, and dropped into the seat next to him.
He held out the soda.
"Do I know you mister?" Ed asked quietly.
"Eh? No," the old man said, not quite managing a whisper.
"Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" a half dozen people hissed, much louder than the offending words could have been.
The old man shushed back at them, before turning once again to Ed. "I don't know you, I just thought you might want something cold to put on that bruise," the old man concluded, waving the soda towards the bruised half of Ed's face. Ed could see dark liquid sloshing against the inside of the plastic lid. Ed took the cup from the old man, though it was mostly to keep him from dumping cola into Ed's automail.
"You could see it from down there?" Ed asked.
"A quarter of your face is swelled up and purple, son," the old man said.
"Oh," Ed said. "Thanks."
"Trouble at home?" the old man asked.
Ed was a little surprised by the question. Apparently he'd run into a ninja village social worker, or maybe just a busy body.
Or maybe he's just being nice, the voice that sounded like Al said.
You wanted me to run away from him remember? Ed thought.
Out loud Ed said "What makes you think that?"
"Why else would a kid your age be hiding out in a movie theater this late at night?" the old man said.
Ed considered asking what age the old man thought he was, but decided against it. He didn't really need any more aggravation.
"I don't have that kind of problem, mister. I live on my own," Ed said.
"Then what happened to you?"
"There's some guy in my apartment complex I don't get along with. They live between me and the stairs. We had a disagreement earlier this evening, so I'm killing some time before going back. They have to sleep sometime right?" Ed said.
"Why don't you report them to village security?" the old man said. "We don't stand for that kind of thing around here, even if things are a bit tight!"
"It's no big deal, mister," Ed said.
The old man sighed. "Well that's your business son. I was young once. I know what it's like to think you've got to tough it out on your own, but you don't."
The old man took a pencil and paper out of his pocket and wrote out an address. He held it out until Ed took it.
Leaf Youth Center
1257 North Gate Ave
"Even with all the chaos, we're still open. You need somewhere to stay, or someone to talk to, somebody is always there," the old man said.
"Thanks mister," Ed said, trying to sound sincere.
The old man patted his arm and stood up. On slightly unsteady legs, the old man went back to his old seat, stumbling across another half dozen unhappy movie goers. Ed slumped further down in his own seat, wondering how pathetic he must look. He pressed the icy cup to his face, and after a few minutes his jaw went numb.
Stupid do-gooders, Ed thought to himself, They're making it hard to think about trashing their village.
Ed sat through the rest of the movie, and waited for the old guy to leave before he got up and snuck back to his hidden room in the theater.
The next morning he transmuted a tunnel, and left Konoha behind him.
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48 hours later….
The crazy woman sat behind the desk with her feet up on the table. She didn't bother to cross her legs, an obvious act of daring with a skirt that short. Kiba, of course, knew it was some kind of trick and refused to be trapped. Shino didn't seem to care. Hinata just looked at the floor, embarrassed. All three of them would've preferred to find Umino Iruka handing out missions that day. All three of them also wished their sensei was not on another mission.
"Your target is Edward Elric. We haven't exactly got a rank for him, since he isn't a ninja. The mission is B rank. He's probably left the village by now, since nothing's been moved around lately. He seems to like kids and small animals, so we decided your team would be perfect for the job. Also, everyone more competent is busy. Here's the mission scroll--everything else should be in there. One more thing: the council doesn't want him falling into enemy hands, so if it looks like somebody else is going to get him-"
She paused to draw her hand across her throat and make a gargling sound.
"-make sure there's nothing to get. Any questions? No? Good," Anko said.
She stood up and prepared to march away when she saw Hinata was raising her hand.
"This isn't the academy," Anko growled, causing the girl to flinch back. "You don't raise your hand. If you want to say something, you say it! So? What do you want to say?!"
"I….I…" she said, twitching.
"Spit it out already!" Anko demanded.
"I…uh…never mind," the girl said, ducking her head.
"Anyone ever tell you you're a waste of skin?" Anko asked.
Hinata nodded.
"Hey, I got a question!" Kiba shouted at the special jonin. "Why are you such a bitter old hag?!"
Akamaru barked in agreement from his perch on Kiba's head. Kiba had been really excited about their first unsupervised mission, but this nut job was taking all the fun out of it. Hinata was already pretty nervous about leaving the village without Kurenai sensei to supervise them; they couldn't afford for her to have a breakdown now.
"Who you calling old, dog breath?!" the psychotic jonin demanded.
"You see any other old ladies in this room?" Kiba said.
"Perhaps you two can finish your discussion after the mission," Shino said in a monotone as he held out his hand for the mission scroll.
Anko handed it over, though she never took her eyes off Kiba. "We'll settle up later, dog boy."
"I'd like to see you try!" Kiba growled.
Anko smirked and walked out. "Don't screw up!" she called before vanishing.
"That screwball says not to screw up!" Kiba said, making an obscene gesture at the doorway. "So you guys ready to go?"
"Perhaps you should see a med-nin first," Shino said.
"What?" Kiba asked. He looked over at Hinata who was turning red and looked ready to faint. "What?" he demanded again.
"H-he's n-n-not hurt," she said. "Th-th-they're stuck in his…uh…armor."
Shino nodded. "Still, Kiba, you may wish to remove those before we set out."
Kiba finally looked down, and felt the blood drain from his face. A half dozen senbon needles stuck out of his pants along the front seam. The dog on his head whined.
"You said it, Akamaru," he muttered.
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Team 8 went to the veterinary clinic so Kiba and Akamaru could sample Elric's scent. Kenta, the old nin-dog who was standing guard at the clinic, identified it for them. They didn't have a direct trail to follow from there, but Kiba was pretty sure they could identify the target. Kiba wandered the streets for a while, as his teammates followed along.
As they went, Shino read off the target's known jutsu and skills. Apparently Edward Elric could use something like fire jutsu, and something like earth jutsu that didn't require any chakra. He could also dissolve your clothes or flesh with a weird tattoo on his palm. His taijustu was estimated to be about mid-genin level, though he couldn't add chakra to any of it. He was also immune to genjutsu.
The profile and history given on the scroll left much to be desired. It said their target had aided a leaf ninja in a fight and had been injured, but had to be confined for security reasons, and subsequently escaped and engaged in acts of vandalism. It also said he had stolen a mechanical arm from a secure research department.
Kiba didn't know why they were being so cryptic. Everybody had noticed the Hokage Tower sinking and the handprints on the Village wall were hard to miss. He'd heard from Choji about the Elric kid ditching that crazy green Jonin, Gai, and the dog at the clinic told them all about Elric rescuing an injured bird. And Hinata had heard from Ino, involuntarily, that Uchiha "I'm so great" Sasuke had tried to jump Elric and got toasted. Kiba had spent a few hours looking for the overly angsty showoff, but Uchiha hadn't been at any of his usual training grounds. He was obviously hiding, but Kiba wasn't quite bold enough to go knock on the other boy's door just to see if he really did get his eyebrows burned off.
Kiba found old traces of Elric all over the village, but trails vanished into the sides of buildings or into random spots in the ground. It was completely frustrating. There were no fresh trails, so the security forces were probably right about Elric leaving the village. Hinata got even more nervous as they left the village gates to continue their search. The mission scroll said they could spend a week looking, but if they didn't find the trail in that time, they were to come back for new assignments, and the search would be turned into a general alert for the border patrols. Kiba was determined not to let it end that way, though.
The forest around the village was humid, and to Kiba it still reeked of the recent war. He could smell blood and faint whiffs of poisons and scorched cloth and flesh. They came across broken swords and abandoned shuriken, already rusting in the damp forest humus. Hinata also found a few bodies the cleanup crews had missed.
It took an entire day for them to find the place where their target had surfaced, a quarter mile outside the village wall. The boy wasn't completely oblivious in the woods. He had tried to avoid bending branches and leaving an obvious trail, but he hadn't done anything about the machine oil and sweat smells that had sunk into the ground behind him. The trail was two days old and fading fast, but it was definitely the target's. They radioed their coordinates in to the village logistics office, and then set out.
Kiba and Akamaru had to run along the ground to keep track of the scent. Their target was moving at a civilian pace, but he was at least a little clever. Whenever they came to a stream they had to track up and down the bank, trying to find the place where he'd come out of the water. Several times their target had gone underground. The target had collapsed the tunnels after himself, but Shino's bugs had been able to keep track of the disturbed soil. It took all night and most of the following morning to catch up.
"He passed by here less than three hours ago," Kiba said. "And he's exhausted."
"Have you considered how we will deal with him when we catch up?" Shino asked. "He is immune to genjutsu, but none of us are overly dependent on that. He has numerous earth jutsu equivalents and a fire jutsu equivalent that incapacitated Uchiha Sasuke."
"So we set a trap for him," Kiba said. "We catch up, get a little ahead, and set up a few snares and wire nets."
"I would have suggested the same thing if not for the target's well-documented ability to alter his environment," Shino said. "As the mission scroll stated, he is immune to all forms of genjutsu, which would make concealing a trap somewhat difficult."
"So we just need a really good trap," Kiba said.
"M-m-maybe we should just track him until he goes to sleep?" Hinata said.
"That's so boring," Kiba said.
"But probably for the best," Shino said.
Kiba grumbled to Akamaru as they kept searching, his teammates following silently behind. The trail came to a stop in front of a large tree. Kiba and his dog circled the base of it. Elric had stopped here, and hadn't touched the ground again. The bark of the tree was unmarked, but the scent trail indicated their target had ascended.
Kiba waved Hinata over, indicating she should use her Byakugan to scan the canopy. The veins on her face bulged and her head moved slowly back and forth as she looked over every branch. She shook her head. Kiba waved a hand, indicating she should look again. She looked him in the face, her eyes still bulging. She started to say something, probably an apology, when her mouth dropped open in surprise. Kiba whirled, looking behind him. All he saw was the tree. She waved for her teammates to follow her and they retreated a few dozen yards, still keeping the tree in sight.
"He's inside the tree," Hinata whispered. "It's hollow inside. I'm not sure how he's getting air, but he is breathing normally, and appears to be asleep."
"So we break in and drag him out," Kiba hissed.
"Breaking our way in will no doubt awaken him," Shino said.
"So have your bugs chew their way in and drain his chakra," Kiba said.
"I would rather not risk sending my allies into an enclosed space with a fire user," Shino said.
"He probably won't start a fire while he's in there, too," Kiba said.
"And Anko s-said he likes animals," Hinata said.
"I have noted that my allies do not invoke the emotional response that fuzzy and cute animals do," Shino said.
Shino's teammates looked at him, nonplussed.
"Fuzzy and cute?" Kiba asked, snorting. "So you don't think your bugs are cute?"
Shino adjusted his glasses in an offended manner. "My allies are both fascinating and endearing, but in most cases they fail to provoke the solicitous and maternal reactions that warm-blooded-"
"Alright already!" Kiba said. "We get it, you love your bugs! So do we just wait for him to come out? He could stay in there all night."
"Patience is important in our profession," Shino said.
"So's efficiency," Kiba said. "We should lure him out if we don't want to dig our way in."
"How exactly do you propose we do that?" Shino asked.
"We need some bait," Kiba said, looking at Hinata and grinning.
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Ed woke with a start. He thought he'd heard a scream.
It was dark and cramped and it took him a long moment to remember where he was. His flesh-and-blood hand brushed the surface he was leaning against; rough, warm and slightly grainy, it was transmuted wood. He remembered now. He had hollowed out a tree to hide inside, after running across tiger tracks in the late morning light. Maybe they hadn't been tiger tracks. They could've been from a lion. Or a giant house cat. The point was Ed's brain was still foggy. He couldn't have been asleep very long.
He shifted around in the hollowed-out tree, holding his breath and straining his ears. He'd left a lot of nearly-microscopic holes when he'd closed up the tree behind him to let air in, but they weren't clustered and didn't transmit sound very well. He clapped his hands and opened the holes a little wider. He thought he heard a distant rumble, the earth settling. He was about to lay down again when he heard the howl.
It was high and shrill and definitely a canine. The howl was followed by yapping, whining, and then another howl. He sighed, wondering what was bothering the stupid dog. As he rubbed the sleep from his eyes, he wondered where the dog had come from. It didn't sound very big. He'd tried not to run right to any town, but he was hoping to disappear into a crowd sooner or later. He'd been in the woods four days already, and could benefit from a hotel with a shower.
He pressed his hands together and transmuted a hole in the side of the tree, this time big enough to see out of. It was still daytime, and a little bit cloudy. There was no sign of ninja around, but he doubted they'd just be standing right in front of his tree if they knew he was in there. He opened up the side and crawled out, tense, with his hands close together, ready to transmute.
Nothing jumped at him.
He left his bag in the tree and climbed out, stumbling a little as he landed on the spongy ground. His legs still weren't entirely awake. The yapping and howling continued, and he walked towards it.
The little white dog was running back and forth along the edge of a ravine, yapping and howling and otherwise freaking out as much as a dog could. It noticed Ed and ran around him in a circle, yapping and jumping.
"You aren't a talking ninja dog, are you?" he asked it.
The dog just kept running and yapping. He supposed that meant no. He walked to the edge of the ravine to see what it was barking at. He almost tripped on the stupid little mutt twice before he got to the edge. The soil was crumbling and wet and he saw the edge was still falling away. He got down on his hands and knees and looked over the side.
There was a girl at the bottom. She had short blue-black hair with really weird-looking bangs and sunglasses. Her clothes looked like pretty standard hiking gear, except she was wearing sandals instead of proper boots. She was struggling to get to her feet amidst the loose soil and rocks.
"Are you alright?" Ed called.
The girl flinched.
"W-who are you?" she asked.
"I'm Sig Curtis, nice to meet you," Ed said. "Are you hurt?"
"N-n-no," she said. "I-i-i-is my d-d-dog alright?"
"Your dog is fine," Ed called down, leaning over the edge. The girl didn't look too banged up, though he could see some dirt and scrapes on her hands and knees. Her head was moving oddly when she tilted it back to face him.
"I-i-is it very high up?" she asked, hands reaching out to touch the base of the still-crumbling cliff. She reached her arms up and leaned forward, as if she expected to reach Ed, who was twenty feet above her head. He could see his face reflected in her black glasses.
"Are you blind?" Ed demanded.
"Y-yes?" she answered.
"Who the hell lets a blind kid go wandering around the woods alone?" he demanded.
The girl flinched and sort of shrunk in on herself.
"I'm…I'm sorry," she said cringing.
Ed wanted to pull out some hair. Why was everyone in the entire universe so damned stupid?
"Stay put, ok?" he called. "I'm coming down there."
"Oh…you don't have to bother," the girl said.
"It's no bother," Ed said through gritted teeth.
He walked a few dozen yards further along the edge to avoid sending another rockslide down on the girl, and then clapped his hands. The dirt and rocks glowed and reformed into a staircase, and the little dog was running down them before the glow of the reaction had even started to fade. Ed sighed and trudged down after it. He scrambled over to the girl, who now had the dog in her lap and was hanging onto it with a death grip that made the little animal whimper.
"Can you stand up?" Ed asked. "Over this way it's not too steep."
The girl nodded and tried to stand, but overbalanced, and since her arms were busy holding the dog, she landed ungracefully on her butt. Ed was starting to feel very annoyed.
"Alright, put the dog down, and give me your arm," he ordered.
She obeyed and he pulled her to her feet.
"Is your house near here?" he asked as he half-helped, half-dragged her towards the steps he had made.
"I…I think so. I w-was just going to my aunt's house. She lives by the village, but…there's no-" she paused to gulp nervously. "There's nothing to fall into between here and there. I think I got turned around."
"Don't you have a cane or something?" Ed asked.
"No," the girl said. "I usually just follow my dog."
"Maybe your dog needs a cane," he muttered.
The dog growled as if it understood him. Ed made a face at it.
"So are there any landmarks or anything I should be looking for?" Ed asked.
"The road is around here somewhere. If you c-could get me th-there I…I think I can find my way back on my own," the girl said.
"Or you'll fall into another ditch, break both your legs, and get eaten by bears, so just try to describe the way back to your house so we can both get on with our day."
The little dog started barking and growling at something in the undergrowth.
"I just had to jinx the hell out of us by saying bears, didn't I?" Ed said.
"I think I hear something over there," the girl said, pointing.
Ed turned to look. There was a dark shape moving in the brush. It was too small to be a bear. Maybe it was a wolf or a lion. Of course, now he was wishing it was a bear, because those were easier to scare off.
"Stay still for a second," Ed told the girl.
He let go of her arm and pressed his hands together. He was bending down to touch the ground and transmute a spear when the girl stumbled against him and caught her balance by grabbing his shoulder and neck. He was about to ask her if it was "stay" or "still" that she didn't understand when a sharp electric pain shot through his neck and the world went dark.
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"Well that has to have been the easiest B-rank mission ever," Kiba said, as he pushed his way out of the undergrowth.
"The mission is not complete until we have surrendered him to Ibiki's custody," Shino corrected.
"Duh," Kiba said as he bent down to pick up his dog.
Shino walked over to the girl to reclaim his sunglasses, and gave her back her weapons pouches and headband. Kiba went to fetch the things out of the still-open hollow tree. There was a messenger bag with a water bottle and some basic supplies.
He got back to the group and found Hinata still busily going through their prisoner's pockets. Kiba had wondered if she had it in her to attack someone who was offering her help. For a moment back there he thought he or Shino would have to step in, and Hinata might have become a hostage instead of a hitman.
"Hey Hinata, are you almost done?" Kiba asked.
"N-not yet," she answered.
Kiba stalked over to speed things along. He suppressed the urge to growl when he saw that she hadn't even started tying the prisoner up, yet. Instead, she was trying to clean the dirt off the unconscious boy's face.
"He's going to prison, not a beauty pageant," Kiba said.
Hinata ducked her head. "I know…it's just that if I'd caught him when I knocked him out he…he wouldn't have fallen in the dirt…"
Kiba sighed, rolled the prisoner back over, and started binding his arms with wire. Mission scroll had warned them not to let Elric touch anything with the marks on his hands, so Kiba twisted the teenager's palms out and tied each of his fingers to a loop of wire around his waist. As long as they didn't set him down on his back, he wouldn't be able to touch anything. Kiba then bound the prisoner's knees and ankles with wire and added a blindfold and gag to be on the safe side. He waited for Shino to volunteer to carry the prisoner since all he had contributed to the mission so far was sunglasses. He didn't, though.
Rather than arguing, Kiba picked up the prisoner. Why waste time arguing, when they could be picking up B-rank pay. He hopped into the trees thinking of all the dog treats he could buy with that money. His teammates hurried after him. If they ran full-out they could probably make it back to the village before midnight. Akamaru yipped happily, sensing his master's good mood. For the next hour, Kiba couldn't keep the grin off his face. But then Hinata went and said it.
"I think somebody is following us."
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Ed knew a lot was wrong when he became aware of the shoulder digging into his stomach. The world was tilting and twisting and his head spun as he tried to get his bearings. He tried to move, but his arms were bound. The blindfold and the gag confused him for a moment, but there was nothing wrong with his hearing.
"He's awake," a young male voice growled.
His captor's grip tightened and sharp fingernails dug into the back of his leg.
"They're gaining on us," a girl said.
Ed realized a moment later that he recognized the voice. It was the blind girl. The world tilted sharply and Ed's stomach jumped into his throat as his captor jumped off of something. The shoulder dug into his gut as they landed, and Ed focused all his will on not puking against the gag in his mouth.
"We will either have to stop and fight, or drop our prisoner," a monotonous voice advised. "We will not be able to outrun them thus burdened."
"Thus burdened?" the one carrying Ed growled. "Who's carrying the little bastard?"
Ed did his best to cause injury to the growling one, but he was tied too tightly.
"I was using general terms," Monotone replied. "We must arrive at consensus soon. Do we fight, or abandon the mission according to the guidelines given in the mission scroll?"
The shoulder dug in again as his captors leapt up.
"I would point out," Monotone continued, "That the eight unknown ninja pursuing us all have chakra signatures in the chunin range."
"You want to cut and run?" Ed's captor demanded. "Screw that! I ain't fxxking up my first B-rank!"
"I would not lightly abandon our mission either, but neither would I see us slaughtered," Monotone said.
"You know what cutting out means!" the growling boy declared. "That psycho-bitch said kill him if we can't keep him!"
"I do understand the ramifications of our orders, Kiba," Monotone replied. "My allies could complete the task painlessly. Alternately, I could stay behind and distract our pursuers. Hinata could rush ahead and summon assistance, and you could proceed without losing the prisoner."
"You may think you're hot shit, Shino, but just 'cause you made it to the finals doesn't mean you have a chance in hell of taking out eight chunin on your own!" Kiba said.
Ed wondered if Shino was Monotone's name or some sort of obscene adverb he hadn't learned yet.
"Splitting up is not the best option," Shino said. "But it is the course of action most likely to allow us to complete the mission."
"They could just split up, too," Kiba said. "They still outnumber us two to one."
"Two-and-two-thirds to one," Shino corrected.
"I'm counting Akamaru!" Kiba said.
A dog yipped.
"I s-s-say we all s-s-stop and fight," the blind girl, Hinata said, though it sounded more like a question than a declaration.
"Me and Akamaru say fight, too," Kiba said.
"I concur," Shino said.
"So w-what do we do with Edward?" Hinata asked.
"We can drop him over there," Kiba said.
Ed wondered what was over there, but that thought was scared right out of his head when he discovered they literally meant drop. It was a long way down.
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Author's note:Yeah I know, a little shorter than usual. I'm still kind of debating whether to make Ed able to see through the "art of transformation". Nobody seems to agree about it being either gen- or nin- jutsu. Sigh, so complicated. Don't forget to review!