I'm alive! Sorry for the late update, writer's block kicked in and stayed there. I've honestly been doing a page here and there for the last two months making myself finish this. Hopefully I can finish this fanfic, but that may cause me to skip a few episodes as I'm not sure how long I can keep an interest in this fic and I refuse to abandon stories.

Thank you for the fave, follows and reviews!

Warning: Swearing, violence, poor Scar is not having a good day… neither is Itachi.

Disclaimer: I do not own FMAB or Naruto

While the search for Deidara turned out to be fruitless in the Akatsuki's endeavors, there was little to worry about with the blond's disappearance. The main reason is that he would not be far from the fort and Deidara is not one for being stuck in confined places. If anything, the fact it only took until now for the blond to vanish was more of a surprise than anything else.

Major Miles approached the Akatsuki with caution, as they were all gathered together to discuss future plans. "I already informed Kimblee, but we have intel that Scar was last seen in an abandoned mining town nearby. If you wish to send someone over, the Elric brothers plan on going with."

"I'll go with them," Konan responded with a little more force than needed, looking at her men. "Sasori will come with me. Itachi and Hidan will remain here to help out the fort and wait for Deidara."

Itachi nodded in a slightly sluggish manner while Hidan let out an uncaring yawn, both walked off to continue their respective duties. Though it wasn't much effort to hear Hidan whining about wanting to go so he could "sacrifice some heathens".

By some miracle, it wasn't snowing though that did nothing to stop the tense mood within the car ride towards the mining town. All of the cars were packed like sardines, with Sasori and Konan sharing a car with Kimblee, who always made sure his hands were visible to the shinobi. The silence was thick in the air, the poor Briggs driver felt his palms become clammy every time he looked in his rearview mirror only to have soulless brown eyes staring back at him. Sasori sitting in the middle to keep Kimblee away from his boss.

"So, Konan, what alchemy do you specialize in?" Kimblee spoke first, smirking the entire way.

"Paper," Konan responded flatly, not taking her eyes off the window. In her head, she counted each pine tree they passed, when the slopes changed and how deep the snow was at each half mile. Something told her that she would not be returning to Briggs in one of these cars.

"Paper? Oh, I'm sure you could give more detail to me than just paper. How did you learn about alchemy? Where are you from? I've heard some interesting things about you from colleagues of mine."

Something sharp was poking Kimblee's stomach.

The man looked down, keeping his expression calm when he spotted a spiked cable, not stabbing him, but the threat was loud and clear.

"Okay then, Sasori correct? Tell me about yourself." Kimblee turned his attention to the redhead that was currently threatening his life with a… cable protruding from his stomach, based on where it's exiting Sasori's cloak.

"My hair is red."

"... And?" Kimblee pushed for more information.

"You requested me to talk about myself. I just did. Now shut up, we are not friends and unless you suddenly turn into a blond teenager with a speech impediment you are lucky I even responded." Sasori snapped, returning the stomach cable back to its original placement and resumed his unblinking stare at the driver.

'Tough crowd,' Kimble thought, trying to keep his annoyance in check. Envy was right, getting information from any of the Akatsuki is going to be difficult. But the difficulty only made the thrill more fun.

The car ride ended with a sharp jerk of the breaks. Konan and Sasori threw themselves out of the car with the grace of a shrine maiden that was late for practice but still had to keep appearances.

"Miss. Konan!" Al walked over to the Akatsuki with Ed tensely beside him. Two of Kimblee's men were walking behind them like bodyguards.

Konan gave the brothers a small smile but gave the two men hardened glares. "Mind relieving your duties to us? I'm sure Edward and Alphonse would be more comfortable with people they have traveled with."

"No can do." Responded the blond one with glasses. "We have strict orders to keep the Elric brothers safe-"

"And I'm sure you would do a fantastic job, but we are here," Konan responded sharply. "You are not needed in protecting these boys when I'm certain the minute Scar is spotted you will lose track of them."

There was a glint of mischief in Ed's eyes.

The dark haired man grumbled, "We would not lose them so easily-"

"There's Scar!" Ed suddenly yelled, rushing into a building with Al hot on his tail.

Konan crossed her arms, putting her weight on her left side while she counted the seconds in her head. Right on the minute mark, she faintly heard the sound of alchemy being used in the building and that was enough for her to create her paper wings. With powerful flaps, she flew high into the sky until she could only see the buildings but not the people surrounding them. Chakra alone was the only reason she could follow Sasori as he got away from Kimblee by leaping onto a building then running as fast as he could on the rooftops.

While the brothers ran blindly around the town, Konan spotted her target within the first hour of flying around. Sending a paper butterfly to lead Sasori to the correct spot, she landed on a building with immense force. Her chakra made the brick structure groan from the force, but that was a minimum priority.

Sasori leaped to her side. "You found the Xing girl already?"

"I'm not a sensor, but they're the only people in this world with an energy similar to us." Konan opened the roof entrance and entered the abandoned building. Minutes within entering, she skillfully ducked when a series of kunai-like knives flew towards her head.

"How did you find us?" Mei got in a defensive stance, behind her was a shabby man with a crinkled mustache and a hooded man with a disfigured face. The impatience of the girl became evidence when she flew herself at Konan, only to be suspended in the air by Sasori's chakra strings.

The disfigured man gasped when he looked at Sasori. "You! You were at my house with the Elric brothers, with the blond boy!"

'All three of them are blond.' Sasori thought blankly but he recognized the raspy voice. "Oh, it's the doctor." Without much care, he dropped Mei.

"Ow… you should be more careful when handling a lady!" Mei stood up, glaring harmlessly but then her eyes lit up. "Wait, that means you know Alphonse!"

"We're their bodyguards on most days. They are looking for you so you could teach them-" Konan withheld a flinch when Mei burst into a series of squeals. "- Alkahestry…"

"I don't think she's listening." Sasori allowed his eyes to roll to the back of his head much to the gasps from the men. "We can escort you to them quickly. I'm sure they'll be looking for most of the day if we didn't."

"Yes yes yes!" Mei jumped excitedly, "Take me to Alphonse!"

Konan nodded, beginning to walk but noticed that there was a rather important figure missing from this equation. "Where is Scar?"

"Looking for food," Yoki answered, glaring at the Akatsuki with distrust. "How can you trust those kids?"

One head tilt. That's all it took. Konan shifted her head to the right only slightly for her to suddenly be berated in a sob story of failure and trickery. How someone could have such a pathetic sob story that wasn't from her own world is a bafflement in itself, most of it was his own fault if even if a fraction of the percentage was accurate or honest.

"One of my men had to kill his entire family by the age of eleven. Please be aware that that was over a hundred lives, you losing your job out of stupidity is pathetic. You are a fully grown man, get over yourself."

That shut Yoki up pretty quickly.

Fifteen minutes later and Mei lets out a cheer when she spots the familiar suit of armor. She rushed to Al and gave him a happy hug. "Alphonse!"

"Mei! I've been looking everywhere for you!" Al let out a breath of relief to finally find the Xing girl. "How did you find us?"

"The blue haired woman showed us- huh?" Mei looked over her shoulder to where Marco and Yoki were, but no sign of Konan or Sasori. "Where did they go?"

Despite about to scare the girl, Ed let out a breathy laugh. "They do that often. They're nearby, don't worry much. Now…" His face went demonic. "Teach us about alkahestry!"

xxxxx00000xxxxx00000

Kimblee was not in the mood to be reunited with Blank Face #1 and Blank Face #2.

He could smell the lies a mile away. It was like they weren't even trying to hide them. Not much got under Kimblee's skin, but these Akatsuki were like an infestation of parasites crawling under his very flesh and setting every atom in his body ablaze. Apparently, Konan could have easily found Scar if she had the foresight to bring the injured kid with the black hair, or if she wanted to, she could have found the Ishvalan within the hour by herself.

But would she go? No, of course not. If he threatened her with a court-martial? The redhead steps in with a roll of paper that made all of the hair on the back of Kimblee's neck stand up. Something in his gut was telling him that using his explosion alchemy would have little effect on the duo in front of him… then again, he kinda stopped caring after the third "no".

'Forget their orders, there are three more Akatsuki left anyway.'

Completely done with the fifth "I am not obligated to assist you in your assignment as you are not my superior" Kimblee broke character. Removing his gloves and clapping his hands together caused an explosion to burst where the Akatsuki once stood. A grin broke his face while the nearby Briggs soldiers were gaping, readying their guns at him. Finally, now he just has to order the men to disengage and then find Scar-

"That was a very big, and very stupid mistake on your part, Kimblee."

Konan's voice hissed through his ears like a viper ready to strike, paper locked his arms to his body while a metal coil lifted him into the air by his throat. Through the sudden cutting of oxygen, Kimblee watched as the Briggs soldiers put their weapons away when Konan nodded to them.

"You made the mistake of letting my attitude get to you. Where we are from, I am the one to give orders and the people follow my words. Your men are gone, these men here are loyal to each other… and I have survived this cold, worked with them. Now… shall we kill you, or wait until Deidara can have his satisfaction? Pick your fate." Konan commanded, feeling a little bit of pleasure watching this. While she would never admit to enjoying watching people writhe in fear of their jutsu -quite the opposite in fact- something about this world just brought out… a little sadistic side of her that she doesn't like to show.

Unfortunately for her, an explosion from a nearby building caused her to jump away from the squirming man and for Sasori to drop him.

"Kimblee!" Ed ran from the smoke and went to Kimblee who was holding his now bruised throat. Ed grabbed the man by the collar and yanking him by his feet. "How could you let Winry come with us?! You were supposed to protect her and keep her with the Akatsuki! Now that bastard Scar has her!"

With dramatic timing, the smoke cleared out to reveal Scar standing on the roof holding an unconscious Winry under his arm.

Kimblee raised his arms to clap but was stopped by Ed. He watched as Scar stared him down, but then his eyes shift and the Crimson Alchemist watched the color drain from that dark face. He wasn't looking at Kimblee anymore. The man followed Scar's eyes and a raspy growl escaped his lips.

That Ishvalan was more afraid of that woman than him!

… To be fair… Kimblee thought he was looking at a demon for a second.

Konan's orange eyes glowed as she kicked into the air and ran after Scar. Sasori stayed behind, ready to kill Kimblee if he tried to use his alchemy while Konan was in the way. Scar slammed his hand down to cause part of the building to collapse in a cloud of dust. Konan vanished within the dust and by the time it cleared up no one was left on that roof.

Scar cursed inside his head in every language he could think of. Why the hell did no one tell him that the blue-haired alchemist was going to show up? The blue haired, MATERNAL alchemist that tried to kill him months ago that very clearly remembers him, while he carries the precious friend of the Elric brothers?! Did anyone bother to tell her what the plan was? Obviously not because she was throwing paper that was sharper than knives at him!

Scar barely had enough time to jump from a building when what looked like a thousand papers barely missing him by mere inches, the landing made Winry yelp from the jolt. "Now would be a good time to get your friend to stop trying to kill me."

"Huh?" Winry awkwardly craned her neck to see the paper. "Oh! Konan!"

Bad move. Bad bad bad move, the paper is faster now!

"Konan! I'm safe! He's not trying to hurt me, Konan!" Winry yelled out. The paper froze, hovering just by Scar's neck and retreat upon itself to take back the form of the woman that Winry admired and Scar feared. "We needed a way to help Scar leave with us while also keeping Ed and Al on Kimblee's good side."

Scar made no move to protest with the young girl was yanked from his arm and was now being carried by Konan in a similar fashion. The woman's enraged face went back to her trademark deadpan. "And you did not feel the need to inform myself or Sasori of this plan?"

"Um… it was last minute?"

"..." A long sigh. "Where are we going?"

xxxxx00000xxxxx00000

Ed and Al squirmed under Sasori's glare, Al because of guilt and Ed because the puppet master was death gripping his puppet scroll. The older of the two brothers was beginning to wonder if they were having negative effects on the Akatsuki members. Ed could have sworn Sasori never showed emotions a month ago.

"I will allow Konan and Itachi to scold you two for this."

Something told the brothers that Sasori was not being merciful in this statement.

Miles walked over to the trio after getting a phone call from Briggs and sat down. "General Armstrong has been summoned back to Central Command Center and troops from Central have taken over the fort. No doubt they're under the Crimson Alchemist's orders, he was making a lot of phone calls during his time there."

Sasori gave the slightest hint to a frown, "Itachi, Hidan, and the brat are still there right?"

"Yes," Miles responded with a slight nod. "The blond one is still missing and when Central troops tried to order the other two to go to Central with General Armstrong they were found curled in a corner sobbing. Not sure what your friends are capable of, but they are fixated on not leaving that fort without the Blue Rose Alchemist."

"They were told to wait for Deidara, and as long as that brat remains hidden from either of their sites then Central can't order them. Not unless they get someone that can override Konan's orders." Sasori kept the detail that no one can override her authority to himself. "We will need to warn the others."

"We can't do anything in this storm, no one can move through it," Miles argued back.

"We can't just sit here! Winry is in danger! I'll go tell them." Ed shot back.

An older Briggs soldier spoke up. "You would freeze to death if you think you'll be able to survive going through a storm like this. I don't know anyone that can make it in these conditions..."

"Um, guys…?"

"I don't care! Damn this storm and everyone stuck here if I let Winry get hurt!"

"Guys…"

"I'm just saying the truth, kid. You'll freeze to death just by standing out there with your tiny body not being able to retain heat at all."

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING TINY?!"

"GUYS!"

Everyone nearly snapped their necks to look at Alphonse.

"Why don't I go since I don't have a body? I won't feel the cold… besides, Mr. Sasori's already outside waiting and he doesn't like to wait, remember?" Al pointed to the window and true to his words, there was Sasori. The redhead was standing on top of the snow, staring up at them with a glare that was colder than the blizzard, foot impatiently tapping the white ground but never leaving a footprint.

The cogs in Ed's head went haywire as memories pierced themselves back together. Right. Sasori wasn't exactly human. He keeps forgetting that little detail even after seeing his body while in Gluttony's stomach.

"Right… If Sasori goes with Al they should be able to find the others faster…" Ed bit his lip and looked at his younger brother. "Be careful Al, stick close to Sasori in case things get bad."

"I won't let you down!" Al gave the group a thumbs up then ran outside. "Sorry for making you wait."

"I am learning that this is to be expected when working with children." Sasori pulled out another scroll and summoned Hiruko, climbing into the puppet. Al jumped when his voice became gruff. "If something is wrong, you will tell me. This is to make sure I can see in the snow without the worry of an ambush. Let's go."

The duo walked through the snow, Al struggling to see where he was going while Sasori was close behind him. Occasionally, something would hit Al and he would change directions. After the 3rd time, he quickly learned that it was Sasori hitting him because he was straying from the intended path. This went on for a couple of hours, not once has Sasori spoken up the entire time.

"Mr. Sasori, are we going the right way? I can't see anything at all!"

And then, Al's vision went white.

Sasori watched Al reach out to nothing then fall to the ground, gasping. "What happened?"

"My… my soul! It's rejecting my body! Just like Barry said it would! I-I'm running out of time!"

"..." Sasori regarded this new information thoughtfully. "We need to keep going, if this happens again, I'll take the lead. Focus on the task at hand."

"I'm scared, Mr. Sasori…"

Sasori sighed.

Of course, the kid was scared. He was scared during the first year of becoming his own art, scared that his chakra would reject his body. That fear never returned afterward. But Alphonse isn't in that suit by choice or even through the same method, if anything, Alphonse may just be a ticking time bomb.

Gods he misses his partner already, at least if he was going to blow up Sasori can see it coming a country away.

"You are going to be fine, if something happens I will be there to fix it. Now keep moving, I still can't sense Konan's chakra yet."

xxxxx00000xxxxx00000

Hidan took an obnoxiously long swig of his coffee, followed by an equally lengthy belch.

"Is burping by my ear something you need in your daily life, Hidan?"

"Until Kakuzu or Deidara are fucking here you're my substitute."

Itachi didn't dignify that with a response, a warm mug of tea in his own hands. Less than an hour ago one of the Central soldiers tried to order them to do work, Buccaneer stopped the pair stating that they should only take orders from the person "paying them to work".

An hour rolled by and Hidan was on his 5th cup of coffee and Itachi on his 10th cup of tea that day, it was honestly the only thing preventing him from keeling over from using his sharingan. The two had gotten themselves cozy against the metal railing while the Central men were inspecting the Brigg's work ethic.

Hidan finally looked at his temporary partner -boy was that a weird thought- and slowly pulled the cup of tea from the younger man's hands. "Look, I may give shit advice, but you look like well… shit. When was the last time you slept?"

"The night before we came here."

Hidan did some poorly written math inside his head. "Wow... look I know we don't see eye-to-eye like… ever, but you got to sleep." He set down Itachi's and his cups on the floor nearby them and cracked his neck.

"I will sleep when Deidara returns-"

THUNK

CLANG

"Shit man, you really are tired if I can do that!" Hidan let out the highest of nervous laughs which made many of the Brigg soldiers tense up. A quick poke confirmed that, yes, Itachi was just knocked out by a simple blow to the head followed by slamming his currently unprotected forehead on the metal bars.

That also alerted everyone in the room.

"Mind your own fucking business, nothing to see here!" Hidan shouted, waving his arms at the people. "Come on."

With the grace that comes with being Hidan, the Jashinist hooked his arms under Itachi's armpits and dragged the Uchiha away. If the Briggs soldiers didn't know any better they would have thought Itachi was drunk.

To be fair, many of them have had to do that too.

Hidan laid Itachi in one of the beds, not bothering to put him in a comfortable position or cover him up. He has fire chakra, he should be fine right?

"Meh, why the fuck not? He's out cold," Hidan mused to himself and began snooping around Itachi's stuff, finding his scroll. "Heh, bet it's nothing but weapons here- hello there."

On Itachi's scroll was various characters, some of them Hidan could read like clothes or food, but one of them slipped his mind. It couldn't be "fun" as there were too many strokes and the Uchiha's crisp, clean handwriting makes it more difficult to read.

"What do you have there, un?"

"JASHIN DAMNIT!" Hidan threw the scroll out of his hands only to be caught by a familiar blond. "Deidara? When the hell did you get here?"

"This morning, I saw new faces and have been hiding in the vents all day, un." Deidara patted off some dust that was stuck in his hair. "You would be surprised by the idiotic things people will admit when they think no one can hear them. Now, what are you staring at?"

Hidan groaned as his heart slowed down, "I don't know. The bastard is hiding something but I can't read it!"

Deidara rolled his eye and read the scroll. He blinked once, twice, and then a third time. "Hidan you dumbass, this is medicine, un!" The blond chucked the scroll at the albino's head. "And stop snooping around other people's stuff."

"Come on, aren't you curious about what he's hiding?"

"It's first aid and I wouldn't snoop around someone's stuff when they are less than two feet from me, un."

"So you want to snoop."

"You are being ridiculous."

"You didn't deny it."

"... Do you want to eavesdrop on these Central guys? I'll leave some C1s and a note to keep people out of this room, un."

"Fuck yeah, something to actually do!"

Deidara left several clay spiders around the room and a single note on the door saying "DO NOT ENTER! Explosives set to detonate upon entrance. '' With the peace and quiet, Itachi slowly opened his eyes, suppressed a groan and putting away his scroll. Okay, Hidan was right, he needed sleep.

With that, the Uchiha finally slept.

It took me way too long to finally get this done and I apologize for that, I really don't want to abandon this fic and I'm trying my best to give this a proper ending (I've had ideas already set the problems have been putting it on paper). Doesn't help that my love for Naruto has slowly been dying off due to a lack of interest, but oh well, I still love this fic.

For some context on Itachi's scroll, the kanji for fun and the kanji for medicine look extremely similar and Hidan can be an idiot sometimes.

Some news though! While this fic will be continued here, I am posting a Harry Potter fic similar to my first fic "Changing Lives with a Bang!" (so an SI story) on AO3. I don't have a name for it yet as I haven't posted it, but my author name there is SlytherinLife .

As always, reviews are loved and I will see you guys in the next chapter, hopefully it will be sooner rather than later.

Bye!