Chapter Twelve: Reinforcement
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or FMA.
Sakura groaned slightly as the light of the day invaded her eyes. She instinctively moved against Ed, seeking to shield her face before finally rousing herself. Similarly, beside her Ed was waking.
"Damn sunlight..." He muttered as he stood up, gently setting her against the wall.
She laughed, closing her eyes for one more moment before pulling herself to her feet.
"Any luck last night?" Ed asked, pulling his coat over his shoulders.
"None." Paninya snorted.
"We had them a few times but they kept getting away." Al added.
"Well, then, we have a busy day ahead of us." The older Elric stated.
Sakura moved through the town, meeting no resistance.
It was unsettling...
She fiddled, out of impulse, with the radio slipped in her ear. She hadn't heard anything for about an hour but she wasn't too concerned just yet. It was just a likely they were shadowing the guilty party and didn't want to risk detection.
The sentiment quickly evaporated as, out of the corner of her eye, she saw a figure slink into a nearby ally. With calculated cool, she waited until she was sure he had dropped his guard and then slipped in behind him.
He was obviously nervous, glancing every which way every few seconds as if he were looking for a demon to materialize out of thin air. But he quickly continued.
She followed him easily, tailing him with the expertise of a tracker.
He led her down several alley ways, through a few sewers, past the destroyed remains of houses, and back into the old catacombs of the city: He entered through what she thought was a sewer vent but the design was far too elaborate for such a job. Immediately suspicious, she sprinted in after him-he had been kind enough to forget to close it.
As he moved below her, she crawled along the metallic rafters in the tubes above him. The shadows hid her well and her motions were far too soft to be detected by his ears of the din they were rapidly approaching.
The gentle light of a fire slowly crept into the passage and she was forced to hold back with no other cover to exploit. But one glance was more than enough...
They were all dead-a heap of bloody bodies all wearing the tatters of the State Military's blue uniforms. And they had been killed by advanced alchemy.
She was just beginning to creep back when the radio in her ear crackled to life and Ed's voice rushed into her ear. Intuitively, her hand snapped upwards and caught the apparatus, attempting to stifle the noise but it was too late.
Several heads turned upward, meeting her eyes. Guns rose and knives were drawn.
She cursed under her breath and dropped down into the passage, sprinting in the opposite direction and turning a corner just as the gunfire began.
"Sakura?!" Ed cried, hearing the roar of munitions.
"Damn it!" He yelled, running off in the direction he knew she had gone.
"Where is she?" Al asked, sprinting to keep up with him.
"The old city." He hissed.
Sakura kicked out the door, somersaulting into the open air to avoid a knife thrown at her back. Extending her leg back, she lashed the door closed again to buy a few precious seconds.
Her keen eyes caught the barest glimpse of Ed's figure coming her way, Al in tow.
"Stay back!" She yelled, waving her arms in warning.
They took it as such but continued in their sprint towards her. She tore towards them, hoping to warn them. But just as they reached each other, a side passage exploded in a rain of wooden shards and shrapnel.
They moved on instinct: pushing away from each other and attempting to find cover. But it was too late and they both fell back-Ed unconscious and Al pinned by rubble.
She spun on impulse, trying to cover her back but she was surrounded.
"Give up." One of them hissed, raising a knife.
A thin smile crept across her lips as she extended her open palm.
"Frigid Spring." She muttered as millions of icy-blue cherry blossom began to emanate from her palm, dancing in a lethal spiral.
They drifted away from her, adhering to anything they touch and freezing it utterly as they blossomed into complete flowers. Already, several of the terrorists had been taken down and the remainder were scrambling for their lives.
"Bitch!"
The cry came from behind and she didn't have time to meet him head-to-head. The alchemist slammed into her, sending her tumbling. She curled on inclination, rolling back to her feet in time to take a nasty hit to her jaw.
There was a small, though distinct, sound now scratching at the back of her mind-a sound that she had come to associate with rescue.
The sound of friction material grating against itself.
A crimson and orange wall danced between them, shielding her and her friends just as dozens of heavily armed, blue-garbed figures swarmed in through the side passages and vents of the city.
"Give it up. You're surrounded." Mustang stated, appearing through the fiery veil.
"Never!" One of the braver cried as he raised a firearm.
"I suggest," Riza responded as she slid in behind him and pressed her gun to the small of his back, "that you put that down."
It was over: While Fullmetal, Al, and Sakura had been distracting the terrorist group, the State Military back-up squad had been hacking at their internal structure from the very outer reaches of the city in. Now, they had flushed the remaining individuals above ground where they could be captured and detained.
With a smile of satisfaction as he handed over a cuffed rebel to his lieutenant, Mustang turned to Sakura and stated, "I think we have a name for you."
She looked up in surprise.
"The Ethereal Alchemist."
TBC
