YOSH! I AM THE SCRABBLE GOD! Well, actually, I'm the scrabble champ of my middle school! I beat a teacher who's NEVER been beat before and the two students voted most likely to succeed (I showed them and their cocky ways). Happy Summer Break everyone! Also, I was in the top 2 of my class and was nominated for most outstanding student! I didn't win, but my best friend did and I feel happy for her.
P.S. Sorry for the late update, but this week and last were finals weeks. Also, in some odd coincidence, I'm actually going to have more work next week than during this week. I'm working at the church from 8:30-11:30, then Red Cross Training from 12:00-3:30, then I'm helping a little kid with baseball from 4:00-5:30, so don't expect another update for one to three weeks.
P.P.S. Back in actual chapter 8, (would appear on fanfiction as chapter 9, I said that "next chapter" AlxOC would come into play. Well, I lied. The next chapter with Alpohonse in it (probably the next one) will contain this pairing; this one sets that chapter up.
P.P.P.S. Did you realize that for every note after P.S. you add another P?
Nilk: That's good, I think.
Master Sanosa: About Andrew…yeah, he won't appear again for a chapter, or four. Until then, enjoy the Elric brothers: )
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Fullmetal Alchemist; however I do own an iPod with Naruto and Fullmetal Alchemist songs on it.
Also, last chapter was chapter eleven, not twelve; sorry!
Chapter 12: Meet Your New Senseis! (Ed)/Dirty Soul(Al)
For the last hour and a half, the class was divided into three factions: the asleep, the bored but not yet asleep, and the attentive. Ed and Sakura were in the exceedingly smaller third faction, both taking appropriate notes. Ed was doing so just because he wanted to get as much knowledge of this city's customs as he could, while Sakura was literally engulfed in the lesson, as if she enjoyed hearing Iruka drone on and on about the Great Ninja Wars. Finally, as Ed felt his own eyes starting to droop, Iruka concluded his lecture and assigned the homework for that night much to the dismay of the class; to indicate the countries involved, the daimyos ruling at the time, and three important war figures from each country for each of the three great wars. He then left the room, prompting much confusion from Ed. He decided that even though the girl he sat next to, to put it nicely, had a stick up her ass, she would probably know what was going on.
"Hey, do you know what's going on here?" asked Ed; Sakura gave no response. "Hey, did you hear me Haruno?"
"You're not going to get an answer from Forehead Girl. Her forehead's too big for her head, she has no mouth; isn't that right Forehead Girl?" jeered the student right behind her. Sakura's only reaction was to hide her head even further into her textbook.
"Where the hell do you get off calling her that? Do you even know how much pain you're causing her when you call her that? Do you?" demanded Ed angrily. Since he himself was often mocked for his physical appearance, he could relate quite well to the girl. This also brought him to a realization; that Sakura was not stuck up, but was just introverted and wary of her peers.
"Aww, someone has a crush on Forehead Girl. How cute; Forehead Girl and Elric-bozu; you two should get married," sneered the boy.
"You bastard!" shouted Ed. He then jumped out of his seat and prepared to lunge at the offender, who also jumped out of his seat. However, neither of the two made a move; they both found they were unable to move. Ed found himself being compelled to fall face first onto the ground, as did his soon-to-be enemy.
"Fuiton: Attou Juuryoku no Jutsu (Wind style: Technique of the Overwhelming Gravity)," cheerily announced a feminine voice. "A low level genjutsu that tricks the mind in believing that the force of gravity is dramatically increased. It can easily be countered by either of the two most common methods; by disrupting your own chakra system, effectively dispelling the genjutsu from the inside out, or by releasing irregular bursts of chakra, effectively disrupting the illusion, of course, the first is far more simpler to do but requires excellent chakra control. And for future reference, I don't sponsor unmonitored matches, especially between two gaki underclassmen," explained the woman, clearly giving a "read between the lines" threat along with it.
"Now have both of you learned your lessons or will I have to let you two break the jutsu yourselves?" asked the woman.
"Yes sensei," muttered the bully reluctantly.
"Yes," growled out Ed.
"Kai (dispel)," muttered the woman, forming her hands in a seal. Instantly both boys felt a heaviness being lifted from both of their bodies. They both shakily got up from the hard wood floor and both turned to face their supposed sensei. She had medium length black hair and almost glowing crimson eyes and was wearing a white dress seemingly made of bandages with a red left sleeve and a fishnet undershirt. She also wore bandages around her forearm and wore blue shoes. Her eyes widened and then narrowed as she recognized the relatively unknown face of Ed.
"So you are the new student, Elric Edward?" asking the crimson eyed woman.
"Yes, I am," confirmed Ed, making sure to put some space between his sensei and himself.
"Nice to meet you, Edward-kun. I am your sensei for genjutsu; Yuuhi Kurenai," introduced the woman.
She then pointed to a man with perfectly groomed platinum blonde hair falling down to his shoulders on the sides and in the back, while he combed back his bangs. He wore a red robe that went down to his waist, blue armguards, a beige kunai pouch, the usual chuunin vest, black tabi, his black hitai-ate on his forehead, and dark yellow straw sandals and was leaning against the door. His face possessed almost feminine features and possessed brilliantly glowing green eyes. "That is your sensei for ninjutsu; Seitsano Soren," further informed Kurenai.
She then pointed to a woman with long turquoise hair held in a high ponytail. She wore a gray circlet on her forehead, a short green robe with a short brown camouflage shirt over it, her hitai-ate on her left bicep, two red armguards with talons on the left one, a necklace with a dark green chain and a red pendant that fell perfectly above her chest, a beige kunai pouch on her waist, pants with a circular weight above the right knee, black tabi, and dark yellow sandals. Her light brown eyes seemed to possess a certain sadness to them as she sat on top of the desk that Iruka had used for his books. "That is your sensei for taijutsu; Nagiatta Shiina," notified Kurenai.
"As you have noticed, there are three, not one teachers for these classes. Over the years we have developed a system of dividing students into groups to decrease the student-to-teacher proportion; therefore you will be paired with one of the already established groups and will be learning the three jutsu styles with them for the remainder of the year," explained Kurenai. She then walked into the front of the room and stood of the front of the blackboard. Soon after the other two teachers followed suit.
"Alright kiddies; follow us outside!" grinned Shiina, energetically leading the class outside. The class followed, groaning, which puzzled Ed greatly.
'She doesn't seem that bad…Although Kurenai-sensei might be,' thought Ed. The rather downtrodden class was lead to a rather large clearing that was mottled with training posts where there were other children training with their senseis also.
"Alright, split up into your groups," commanded Kurenai, but in a gentle tone. Ed watched as the student body of his class separated into three equal groups, leaving him alone. "Okay, Edward-kun, you can be in…"
"My group!" interjected Shiina. "He'll be in my group first!" loudly proclaimed the chuunin.
"Fine with me," shrugged Kurenai.
"Alright group, follow me!" boisterously dictated Shiina. She then led them to a rather large section of the clearing where there was evidence of shrubs and bushes. "Now each of you pair up and start sparring!" cheerfully exclaimed the teacher. "However, there is to be no utilization of any kind of jutsu other than tai, if you use ninjutsu, doujutsu, genjutsu, hijutsu, and you end up hurting your partner I'll make sure you will be expelled," warned Shiina, uncharacteristically grave.
"Hai Shiina-sensei!" the seven year olds echoed. They then eagerly paired up with one another to begin sparring. Ed and the boy from before attracted each other like magnets. However, once again their battle was stopped, but this time it was by the taciturn pink headed girl.
"I hope you don't mind, but I would rather like kicking this guy's butt by myself," quietly interrupted Sakura, her eyes facing the ground. However, she then rather quickly brought her head up as if in pain, and brought her eyes up to face Ed's, and within those eyes, Ed saw a newly sparked determination.
"Alright…Sakura-san," complied Ed. He then left the two to fight and looked around for another partner. Unfortunately, though, there were only eleven people in the group and the other ten people were already paired up and had started to spar. He decided to inform his predicament to his sensei.
'Uh…Shiina-sensei, there are eleven people in the group," complained Ed subtly.
"So?" she asked, oblivious to his problem.
"So I don't have a partner," elaborated Ed. Shiina sighed in frustration.
"Don't you kids know how to self-preserve? Oh well, I guess that because you don't have a partner I can sufficiently test your capabilities in the elements of taijutsu," sighed the chuunin. She then positioned herself into a loose fighting stance and flicked her hand towards Ed and then back towards her, as if to say 'bring it on.'
"Al, how long have we been in here?" asked Frey. There was absolutely no light in the cold, dank, and musty cell and their eyes were only just starting to adjust.
"Six days, give or take," blatantly responded Alphonse.
"I…I don't wanna die," confessed the young boy. He had only recently began to act his age, in one of the worst scenarios possible.
"It's alright, but worrying over it will get us nowhere," Alphonse attempted to soothe. However, it seemed to have no effect on Frey, as he started to sob.
'Shut up! Don't you realize that crying won't change a damn thing?' angrily thought Alphonse. However he kept this angry burst to himself so as not to further upset Frey. "Frey, no matter what happens, stay in this cell, alright?"
"Alright," complied Frey. Al then took a small knife out of his pocket and slit his left wrist and watched as the blood trickled out of the self inflicted wound. He then took his right middle and index fingers and smeared blood on them. After he did so he walked over to where the metal bars where and with the blood on his fingers he started drawing intricate patterns on the soiled stone floor.
"Al, what are you doing?" inquired Frey. To him it looked like Al was just finger painting with his own blood.
"Alchemy," answered Alphonse proudly. He then drew his hand up from the stone and slammed both of his hands onto it again in synchronization. A blinding electric blue light illuminated the room as the metal bars rusted away into nothingness. The blinding light then subsided, leaving the two prisoners subject once again to the abysmal darkness of the cell.
'I want to learn alchemy,' thought Frey eagerly. 'I want to know how it works, why it works; I want to help my friends without having to risk going ballistic. I'll ask Alphonse to teach me when he gets back, I suppose.' He observed Alphonse as he slunk out of the now open entryway to the cell. However, Al was too preoccupied with his own thoughts that he didn't notice the sound of footsteps approaching from behind him.
"Alphonse, behind you!" warned Frey rather loudly. Alphonse swerved around and swung his knife in a semicircle as he did so, effectively causing blood to spray all over his face. The person that had been sneaking up on Al dropped his flashlight as he fell onto his knees, blood spewing like a fountain out of his slit throat. Al couldn't see the corpse, but he felt the hot sticky blood on his face, his arms, and his soul. He dropped down into his knees, clutching the sides of his head. His eyes bulged out as he made out the very faint outline of the man. He did not even think to look at the flashlight.
"Al, are you alright?" asked Frey. After getting no response, he rushed over to Alphonse's side, picked up the flashlight, and then shone it on Alphonse. He saw him muttering and clutching his head and he remembered the pain of a first kill; the soiled feeling on your soul. He then shone the light on the corpse but didn't even flinch; he had seen much worse than this. He then dropped the flashlight, dropped down to his own knees and hugged the older boy tightly, trying to hold together a jigsaw puzzle that was slowly falling apart.
They both thought that the horror was over; they were wrong.
Footsteps echoed off of the stairwell as someone slowly descended. Frey hurriedly got onto his feet and went into Stage 1, as he liked to call it. His swords then penetrated the epidermis of his forearms and he brought them into a guard position to await their new arrival. The person slowly descended onto the stone floor and the audible sound of a switch being turned was heard. Instantly several lights illuminated the entire establishment, revealing a lean girl of around five foot six with braided blond hair and pastel blue eyes. She wore a uniform of the military and looked none too happy with what she saw. She also had a revolver in her hand, cocked.
"Move aside," commanded the girl, pointing the gun at Frey's head with the experience of years evident in her grip and her glowing orbs.
Once again, sorry for the late update. Please R&R.