Chapter six: Jutsuless

The girl had black hair and black eyes and light skin, unlike her companions, two boys with brown hair and one with blue eyes, one with green. They were sitting in their classroom, waiting eagerly to begin training for today. The girl adjusted her Hidden Sand headband and squealed excitedly. "I'm so happy! We're going on a mission! Did anyone tell us what the mission was about?"

"No, Minako now shut up!" One boy said irritably. "For a girl who can't even do jutsu, you sure are annoying!"

Minako's single hand flailed angrily at him. "SHUT UP, ROZE! For a guy who's named after a flower, you really are dumb."

Roze glared at her. "Why you little…"

"TEAM NINE!" A cheerful voice called. They all paused and turned.

"Sensei? What happened?"

Nike, their sensei, was on crutches with a broken leg. "I fell, the other day. It's kind of pathetic, huh? Anyway, since you're the strongest team, you get to go on this mission. Seven strange beings caused havoc last week down in the south area of the village. We need you all to go after them and bring them back, alive or dead. I can't come, so you get a special sensei today, alright?"

"Ooh! Who is it?" Minako asked.

"Gaara!"

Gaara walked out from behind a building, shifting the gourd on his back. Roze and Gomen (The other boy. Yes, his name means 'sorry.' His father wasn't paying attention and accidentally wrote "Gomen" on his birth certificate.) shrank back, but Minako stepped forward and held out her right arm, the one that had no hand. "Gaara? The son of the Kazekage? Wow. You must be really powerful."

Minako looked at her hand. "Oh… Right. Can't shake." She pulled her hand down and scuffled her feet. "I can't even do jutsu. I'm surprised Roze and Gomen even let me fight. I can't do tai, gen or nin jutsu. They tease me a lot. But I can kick their asses in hand to hand combat!"

"…So isn't that taijutsu?" Gaara asked emotionlessly.

"No, it's simple martial arts. It doesn't focus on speed; it focuses on strategy and skill. Not like your stupid taijutsu that only focuses on speed…"

Roze came up behind her. "Lovely, Minako, but I don't think Gaara wants to listen to you and your stupid opinions."

"Shut up, you dumbass! At least I'm not a BOY named after a FLOWER!"

"At least my name means something!"

They paused as Gaara walked between them and up the road. "Come on. We'd better try to catch up. No doubt they'll head from one village to the other all in a row. It seemed like they were looking for something. So they ran when their search was interfered. Most likely, they were looking for Shukaku and I. Next they will go after Kyuubi and Naruto. Then God knows who else. I'm not sure how they're getting all this information, but we should be cautious. You especially, Minako."

"Why just me?"

"You only have one hand and you know not a single jutsu. You're at a disadvantage, mainly because these people could be long-range fighters."

"…Shut up."

"So, Lust, where are you taking us?"

Lust chuckled and continued walking. "Patience, Scar, dear. We still need the power of Kyuubi and Kriinta. Once we have that you'll be able to take out all the state alchemists in a single sweep, just you wait, you alchemy-hating Ishvarite."

"NORTH!"

"SOUTH!"

"NORTH!

"SOUTH!"

"WHY DON'T WE JUST GO WEST?"

"GLORGISHMORPH!"

Scorpio and Virgo were arguing on which way to go. Gemini, ever sensible, said, "Why don't we just flip a coin? Elementé style?"

"Sure, why not." Scorpio shrugged. Virgo remained silent.

Gemini fished a penny out of her pocket. "Alright, Virgo is tails and Scorpio is heads. You know the usual rules. Pisces will hit the coin. Go!"

She flipped the coin into the air, Pisces pointed at it and focused her water on it, water flinging from the ground up against the coin. It spun several times in the air swiftly, before plopping on the ground.

Virgo and Scorpio bent over it. Scorpio pumped her fist in the air. "HEADS, BABY! SOUTH IT IS!"

"That's tails, you idiot."

"NO IT'S NOT! IT'S—" Scorpio bent over it again, this time closer. "…tails."

"Hah! We go north!" Virgo teased. She felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned to look at Ed, who pointed south. Something was crashing through the bushes, black with a little red on its shoulders. It paused outside the tree fringe, and then leapt over a bush, stopping mid-leap in the air, staring at Edward.

Ed, infuriated, made a blade on his arm. "GREED!" He shouted.

Greed, turning back to his normal self, put on his sunglasses and smirked. "Well hey, kid, long time no see. How old are you now? Seven? Eight?"

"I'M SIXTEEN!"

"Oh, really, I guess I couldn't tell."

"Who's this bastard, Ed?" Scorpio asked. "Sounds like a real ass to me."

"It's Greed, one of the seven homunculi sins I told you about earlier… Did I tell you? Yeah, it was in between chapters. Anyway, he was the first homunculi killed, but Areku has managed to bring him back for some reason." (Areku: DAMN RIGHT I DID! P.S, I'm going by what's in the anime, not the manga. YAY SO THERE'S A WRATH!)

"Oh, so we can just kill him again." Virgo smirked.

"'Fraid not, doll." Greed replied, adjusting his sunglasses. "See, homunculi have nucleuses that take a while to run out. And homunculi are weakest when they're near the bones of their creators, and the bones of Dante are ALL THE WAY in Amestris."

"So? I'll just kill you until you die." Virgo replied darkly. "I've done it before. And if I don't have enough chakra, I can always snatch some from some… Inner sources."

"What the Hell is chakra? Anyway, doll, I don't have time to play games. I have to meet up with the other homunculi, and tell them that I found Kyuubi and Kriinta!"

"Oh, really? Where are they?" Virgo looked at Naruto, a gaze that said yes-I-know-Kyuubi-is-in-you-so-stop-staring-at-me-like-an-idiot.

"Well, Kyuubi is in the Hidden Leaf village, and Kriinta lives just outside the walls. So we just go around and find the demons easily."

"Libra, don't hate me…" Naruto whispered.

"Why would I?" She whispered back.

But Naruto had stepped forward and crossed his fingers in the sign for kage bunshin. "Kyuubi's not in the village. Kyuubi is in ME. If you want to see your own blood, just step forward."

"Oh really, really…" Greed chuckled.

"WHAT'S SO FUNNY?"

"You just gave me everything I need. The Kyuubi is inside a weird kid with blonde hair and whiskers."

Naruto was about to use his kage bunshin, but a hand fell across his chest. Libra stepped forward. "Let me, Naruto. Save your strength for the other homunculi."

"Libra! But…"

"What are you waiting for? GO!"

Naruto wanted to stay with her, but Sagittarius put a hand on his shoulder. "Libra knows what she's doing. Let her."

He nodded and turned away briskly, only to be spun around and kissed by Libra. When she finally let him go, she said, "I've been waiting for that. Go, Naruto. Go after the others and find Orochimaru!"

Naruto stood speechless. But he nodded with a solemn look. "Good luck."

Naruto, his gang and the rest of the Elementé children disappeared into the woods. It was not long before they heard a loud "BURUSUGAN! DIE, BASTARD!"

"What WAS that?" Sasuke asked Edward.

"A homunculus." He replied. "Artificial humans created with alchemy. They have no souls and can't die for a long time after they are born, two hundred years at the most, I guess… There are six more we have to face, and they might have even made more…"

"Where's Greed?"

"I don't know, Wrath."

"He's probably dead."

"Probably."

"So what are we supposed to be doing again?"

"We're supposed to be finding and kidnapping the Kriinta, Envy."

"Greed probably already found him, Wrath."

"Hm. Well, we'd better go find Greed and bring him back to the others."

"Hey, did you just hear voices?"

"… Come to think of it, yes, I did."

"Should we?"

"Let's go check it out."

Envy and Wrath peered through the bushes. "Oh my God."

The Elementé girls were relaxing in a hot spring, fluffy white towels soaked and wrapped around them. Virgo still had her headband on, but otherwise, was wrapped in a towel, like all her other sisters, besides Libra, of course, who still had not returned from her fight with Greed.

"I'm worried about Libra." Pisces confessed. She sank into the water up to her nose, blowing bubbles airily. "She's still not back. What did Ed say that thing was?"

"A homunculus." Virgo replied, leaning back against a rock and staring at the sky, closing her… eye. "It did look dangerous. Burusugan isn't exactly a very affective ability. What was it called?"

"Greed," Gemini put in. "Edward told us all about him. He's the 'ultimate shield' homunculus."

"What were the others called?" Aries asked.

"Lust, the long nailed homunculus… Um…" Sagittarius looked at the sky. "Envy, the shape changing homunculus… Wrath, the item attaching homunculus… Pride, the speed homunculus… Gluttony, the hungry homunculus… And… Sloth. I forget her power."

"Ah. So Greed did find them." Envy whispered.

"Which one is the Kriinta?"

"I'm not sure. Shh!"

"I'm still scared. What if Libra is dead?" Pisces asked fearfully.

"Libra can take care of herself. No loser homunculus can hold her up."

"Loser!" Envy hissed. "Hmph."

"Hey, where's Scorpio?" Pisces asked. Virgo just sighed. "Use your byakugen and find out, Pisces."

Pisces did, and smirked. "In the bush behind us are two people. Both boys. No soul. Homunculi. Scorpio behind them."

Envy and Wrath blinked and turned their heads, not a moment too soon. Two bare feet slammed into their faces.

Envy and Wrath woke up some time later, tied to trees. The Elementé girls were in a semi-circle around them, glaring, fully dressed.

"Look what the scorpion dragged in." Virgo commented dryly. "Two homunculi."

Envy began to change and Wrath began to merge with the tree, but Virgo spat, "If you do ANYTHING, I'll have Pisces drown you. And you'll die and die over and over again until your nucleuses run out and you die for good!"

Envy and Wrath returned to normal. How did she know? About their nucleuses? And who knew homunculi could die by drowning continuously? (A/N: I've thought of this myself… Why doesn't Ed ever think of drowning them until their stones run out?)

"What are you doing here? What is the Kriinta you keep talking about?" Scorpio demanded. "Is that one of the tailed creatures? Like the Kyuubi?"

"Yes, why, yes it is…" Envy chuckled. "The Kriinta is the seven-tailed cat. She is sealed in… Why, she's sealed in one of you."

The girls looked at each other in shock.

"He's lying." Virgo said hastily and angrily. "We just wants us to turn against each other!"

Scorpio looked at Virgo nervously. She knew, and Pisces knew, and Virgo knew, but the other girls were totally clueless that…

"Let me tell you a little story…" Virgo hissed. Her hand slammed into the tree beside Envy's face. "Twelve years ago, when I was four, a man named Orochimaru came to my home. Intent on biting my father, Leo, he went into the wrong room – Our room. We all awoke and began to make a loud racket, and Orochimaru told us to shut up. The other girls did, but I was bold. I stood up and told him to get out of my damn house. And so he flew at me and tried to bite my neck instead. I moved at the last second and his fang punctured my eye." She tore off her headband furiously. Her now revealed right eye was permanently shut, to clearly show the curse seal on her eyelid. "As I grew I became stronger and stronger. And that is why I am a container for the hateful man. Do you know what that means?"

"No, I'm afraid." Envy said impudently."

Virgo's fingers curved into the tree, tearing out a chunk. "It means it doesn't matter if your human or homunculus, demon or animal. I could kill you."

The other girls shifted uncomfortably. They were afraid of her sister, in a rather healthy way, not exactly wanting to NEVER be around her. She was just… Frightening.

"Now." She grabbed Envy's hair and pulled. "YOU will stay with us." She pointed at Wrath. "HE will go back to the other homunculi. Take them this message: If they ever… ever come looking for the Kriinta again, I will kill them all!"

So Wrath left.

"Why Wrath, you look positively shaken."

"They captured Envy…"

"What?"

"They'd said he's drown them if I didn't tell you this: If you ever come looking for the Kriinta again, she'll kill us all!"