Disclaimer: I don't Naruto, Full Metal Alchemist, if I did, I would be living on a nice beach.
Chapter 35
Naruto looked at Ed. "You're shitting me!"
"I wish I wasn't." the two tailed fox said. He'd spent the past hour telling Naruto about Dante and all she'd done the last time they had crossed paths.
Naruto paced. "And from the sounds of it, Orochimaru calls her mother."
Ed shuddered. "I don't even want to think who screwed her. The amount of crotch rot… and I mean that literally."
"Brother!" Al admonished. "Its still Eli."
"No." Ed said turning from his spot on the table. "She stopped being Elicia Hughes the moment Dante set up shop in that body."
Naruto looked at the armored face and swore it looked sad.
"We can't have her nosing about." Naruto said. "She could ruin everything."
"No shit. But the plus side is there are no homunculus with her."
"Meaning either she hasn't tried to make a stone, or they are in hiding." Naruto said.
"No. If Dante had Homunculi she would have used them rather than endangering herself."
"Unless she's keeping them hidden from Orochimaru." Naruto countered. "From the sounds of it, this Dante woman hates to share power."
"She shared, but she would betray faster than you eat ramen." Ed said.
"She said she needed the bijuu to make the homunculi." Naruto said as if recalling the discussion they heard.
"Or she could be misleading Orochimaru even now." Ed countered.
"My head hurts." Naruto mock whined, and Al nodded in agreement. "Come on, we need to talk with the old man."
"And you need to go home." Ed said.
"Not everything is solved by sex." Naruto said to the fox.
"Sure it is. It'll help your headache as well. Endorphins and adrenaline will…"
The water jutsu hit him dead on and Al laughed before vanishing back to where every he goes and Naruto laughed even as the buzzsaw that was Ed gave chase swearing vengeance.
XX
(Hokage's Office)
Privacy seals were activated and the Hokage listened to the report, his pipe resting in its dish after it fell out after the first few minutes of Naruto and Ed's report.
"How certain are you this is the same woman?" he asked the two-tailed fox.
"As sure as I am of my own name." Ed said. The fox looked up at him, "What confuses me is how long this body has lasted."
"Could she have used a preservation seal?" Naruto asked. After he'd calmed Ed down they had spoken about Dante a bit more before coming to the Hokage. "You said she used to burn through bodies in years."
Ed nodded and scratched his ear with his hind paw. "What has me worried is her experimenting with anything outside of alchemy." The fox said. "She was dangerous before, she's had a thousand years uninterrupted to master so many other things."
"Old man, did you know Orochimaru's parents?" Naruto asked.
Hiruzen shook his head. "He was an orphan we found in an abandoned village during the war."
Ed snorted. "More like Dante left him to be found and raised. She's done that before as well." He thought of Rose and her child and shuddered at what Dante had planned for the baby.
"Anything else?" The Hokage asked.
Ed snorted. "I could spend months with this discussion. Al and I need to keep out of sight. If Dante sees us it could get a lot worse." He looked at Naruto. "And you are going to need to be very careful not to use alchemy. The cats out of the bag with Orochimaru spilling the beans that you took my surname, but if we can convince her that we're harmless…"
"It won't work." Naruto said. "Orochimaru's told her I can do alchemy without an array."
"Shit, I forgot that." Ed said. He had been in shock at seeing Elicia-Dante that he had zoned out.
"Anbu is spying from further away." The Hokage said. "Kabuto has been seen around the tower, so the planted information will be picked up soon."
Naruto hated the plans that were in motion. "There is so much that can go wrong."
The Hokage nodded and prayed that things worked out. Or Eboshi will turn me into a autopsy dummy.
XX
(Inuzuka Compound)
Tsume looked at the four girls who were asleep in the chairs and on the couch. They'd been waiting for Naruto to return and after hours of talking they had dozed off.
Tsume saw Haku and Anko snuggled on the couch while her daughter was lounged boneless like in a chair, her legs over the arm of the chair.
Her gaze landed on the last of the small group.
What the hell, is the pup trying to do? Repopulate Konoha with his own children? Tsume thought.
Her daughter and Anko hadn't been a surprise. She knew from when they were teamed with the blond boy that they would make him theirs.
The dark haired Haku had been a surprise. In both how well the girls accepted her and how she seemed to mesh with both the loud and brash pair, bringing a calmness to the group.
Tsume looked at Temari. Another loud, strong-minded woman, just what the blond needs.
She shook her head. And if they thing they are going to be doing any of that in my house, they better think again.
Ed had arrived earlier and convinced her to hide the girls here and told her a bit of what was going on.
And they leave me to tell the women, while they are being targets. She shook her head and decided to wait until morning for that discussion.
XX
Naruto watched from a distance as Kabuto killed the Chunin guarding the records room and spent the next ten minutes pulling and copying files.
He's good at what he does. Naruto thought as he saw Kabuto wearing a stolen Anbu outfit approach the Chunin talk with him and then slit his throat when the Chunin turned to grab something.
Kabuto finally left and shushined away. Naruto knew where he went, and went to report to the Hokage that the first part of the trap had been taken.
XX
Orochi-Sasuke looked over the files that Kabuto had finally managed to get to as the leaf and the Hokage had finally let their guard down. Fools. They think I'm dead. They think my soldiers are offering the Uchiha a bribe.
He read the file on the Uzumaki-Elric boy. He shook his head at the stupidity and the trust the old man seemed to give the boy, ignoring the fact that the Hokage had once given him the same level of trust.
Hm, never attended the Academy, yet he's ranked just beneath the Hokage. The Snake Sannin read. Skilled in hand-to-hand, style unknown. The Sannin had to admit his scuffle with the blond had left him with lots of questions and the file was missing the answers.
I bet the stupid old man has left it out on purpose. He knew the village elders hated the Kyuubi brat, they were the ones who had given him access to the village and the plans for the exam.
Mother best come through for me. I can't see staying in this useless shell for three full years, I'll take whatever penalty there is. He thought as he picked up the next folder.
Where Naruto's file had been very limited, the one on Anko had been very detailed.
Until she's partnered with the Kyuubi brat. Sensei is playing things loose with this team I see. Orochimaru in the Sasuke skin suit pondered.
He read the file about the Inuzuka girl and didn't see anything special about her. Just another stupid bitch with a mutt. Orochi thought as he knew Anko was at least special. Even if she is my failed experiment. He thought with a sneer, but he recalled how he tried to call on her curse seal and found nothing there and that made him wonder as well.
The Kyuubi brat had another girl with them, but there's no file on her meaning she's a secret that only the old man and the team know, or she's something else. Orochimaru thought.
"Sir."
Orochi-Sasuke turned to see Kabuto kneeling.
"What is it?"
"Message from Dante arrived via hawk." Kabuto said. "She will have something for you on the day of the final exam."
Orochimaru nodded. "Mother came through for me. Make sure everyone is ready. Even without Suna as I had hoped, we can still kill the old man."
"Your plans for the Uchiha?"
"There are other more worthy hosts. I want you to send the Sound Four to pick up a specific one."
Kabuto listened and nodded. "As you command Lord Orochimaru."
Orochi-Sasuke knew that time was approaching. If he'd known about the Uchiha ahead of time he would have altered his plans.
No use crying over a dead baby. He thought as he other plans to move forward and took this as a lesson.
AN: Time skip next time.
Thanks for the kind words for my pop. He had a series of micro strokes which require me to be there to help my mom more. I'll get back to posting more than five and a regular schedule when things get some semblance of order.