Notice: This contains inlets of FMA Manga, FMA Anime, and BBI. (BBI: Bluebird's Illusion so it may get a little confusing. -.-')
WARNING: Does contain spoilers for Manga, Anime, and possibly BBI
Announcement: This is an AU (Alternate Universe for both series)
Disclaimer: I do not own FullMetal Alchemist. Himuro Arakawa does. T.T I do not own Naurto. Masashi Kishimoto does and I'm quite fine with that actually.
Endless Moments
By: Scifijesus
Chapter 3: Uncommon
Ed and Kakashi had met only once before. The meeting was not to Ed's liking either. It was the hour of the preparations before the ceremony, which was taking place in the main hall. The Generals and Jounins were handling all the other officers, where seats were going, who was going where and the like. The three State Alchemists and three select special Jounin were called aside to speak with the Hokage and Führer. All six were told of 'demonstrations', but nothing was specified. So, the six stood in a group on the other side, watching the others hustle around the room, following orders, moving chairs, and some getting yelled at for total incompetence.
The Colonel's eyes looked at ones being reprimanded amusingly, as if laughing. They were troops from Amestris, ones that had only come in a couple months ago. It was the joy of random selection.
The others seemed to be looking in that direction as well, but one ninja with white hair lopsided to the left was looking down…next to him and right at Ed. Ed was glowering in the anger from the earlier jabs at his height.
Kakashi bent down to stare at Ed's eye level, "You don't look like much."
"Gah!" Ed jumped back raising his fists on impulse. He dropped them a little seeing it was only a 'special' Jounin and immediately retorted, "Who're You Calling Small?"
Kakashi chuckled. Roy smirked at his subordinate, "FullMetal is a lot even though he's so little."
"I'M NOT LITTLE!"
Now the rest laughed lightly. Ed glared at all of them, seething, cursing, and grumbling incoherent profanity under his breath as well as plotting to kill the Colonel with a various number of torture techniques. Yet, Ed's humiliation grew when the Hokage and Führer came strolling up, also laughing.
Immediately the three alchemists saluted the Führer, Ed still with fury written all over his face. The Führer chuckled, "At ease."
The little charade was all but forgotten as both leaders designated orders to the six. They were told of the 'demonstrations' and for how to go about them was their choice only to needed to be approved by both leaders and if deemed good enough, the plan would follow through.
They'd only been discussing for several minutes when a spark on brilliance erupted in Edward. An evil grin slowly grew about his face. He'd not been thinking of the demonstrations because if General Comanche and the bastard Colonel decided something, he'd have to go along with it. Ed was the lowest ranking officer in the whole group. But Ed was thinking about this Kakashi character. He wasn't bent on revenge, for that, he'd told himself many, many times it was not something considered worthy of motivation. And yet, the Kakashi guy bugged him, calling him 'nothing much' which would be definitely be taken as being called 'small' no matter how large the stretch. Kakashi didn't bug Edward as much as Colonel Bastard did, but the ninja did fit in the same area of 'annoying'.
But he still needed a reason… Ed confronted himself. It was all in the name of demonstrations. That was all. The Military hosted controlled fights for renewing alchemy licenses for the state. And these were ninja after all. Weren't their expertise a style of fighting?
"FullMetal?" Roy looked down at Ed, noticing the evil smirk enveloping his face. The Colonel could only wonder what the teen could be thinking.
Ed grinned even more vilely at Roy, "I have an idea for demonstrations."
---
So here he stood, Edward Elric, the FullMetal Alchemist, "Hero of the People" facing off this Kakashi or "Copy Ninja" because he had a violent impulse. Ed was beginning to wonder about himself. Usually, he was not like this, acting on impulse and not logic, but then he'd done it numerous times, but then it was while he was being called small. Al was always there to keep him grounded. Now Al wasn't there. Al was watching and if he screwed this up, he was going to be ridiculed and called short and little and all those other words no one had dared to utter around him. Many had endured the brunt end of Ed's wrath when called such things. Only his superior officers survived. Al…what did Al think? Did hi sown little brother think him short? Oh Edward had to find out.
Ed looked up at Kakashi, as Kakashi was looking at Ed. This was a face-off, a match where both would merely 'demonstrate' his power, but to Ed this was much, much more. He would not be called small, not little, not tiny. He would not be ridiculed by the Colonel about loosing a battle. And he would beat down this ninja in front of him to make him learn his place. No one called Ed 'small', no matter how indirectly said.
An endless moment passed while they stood staring at each other, waiting for the scared announcer from Konoha to yell. Ed was glaring; Kakashi looked amused, which pissed Ed off even more. There was something about that amusement that not only reminded him of the bastard Colonel, but also a little of Envy, the bastard homunculus.
"Commence fight!"
It startled Ed a bit at the sudden yell, but he was quick on his feet. Kakashi hadn't moved. It was clear he wanted to see Ed's style of fighting before completely 'taking him down', which of course, to Ed would not happen.
Ed smirked, clapped his hands together and a blue light flickered. Ed's left hand passed over his right arm, and dropped off into a fist. His arm had changed into a blade. Kakashi raised an eyebrow at this. Ed twitched. Seconds after Ed had changed his automail arm into a blade he lunged for the ninja. There was one thing the Colonel had said to him once, although he'd never tell Roy he'd taken the advice. "A solider who strikes fast strikes first. It means you have to get the initiative to achieve a quick victory."
Ed knew that Kakashi would move. He'd planned it that way. Kakashi did move. He'd jumped out of the way, and to the side, flinging knives at Ed. A smirk grew as Ed jumped out of the way of one, the second and back flipped, dodging a third. Ed clapped his hands together again and onto the ground. A large, or rather very enormous statue was erected from the ground and Edward sent the statue's fist flying at the ninja.
Kakashi dodged it, only to be knocked backward by the wind of the blow. Smoke, dirt, and ground went flying through the air. Kakashi knew he had to get to Edward for Edward was the mind of the statue. The statue had stopped moving. Kakashi was expecting Ed to come and attack him. Where though? From behind? No. Kakashi was trying to locate Ed through chakra, but then the flow of the teen was everywhere, so it was impossible. Kakashi stood still; opening his hearing sense, for his sight was no use in this situation. He couldn't call his hounds to sniff out the teen. That was a bit cruel for a demonstration.
Everything cleared. Kakashi stared about, trying to locate Ed. The statue was still there in the same position, not under, but could Ed possibly be on top? He wasn't anywhere else. He slipped a hand around a kunai's hilt.
The sky was darkening quickly now. Of course, it was evening and dusk always came at this time. Ed was watching Kakashi closely. The guy had barely moved. Ed had escaped his sight for now, but the ninja would find him. He was crouched behind a part of the statue. The Colonel again had given advice, but he'd also known part of this one from Teacher. "A solider should keep deception in his arsenal. Meaning a surprise attack is a legitimate strategy, FullMetal."
The statue suddenly disintegrated into a mass of dust right before him. It was starting to clear and there was a dark figure: the image of Ed standing there. Kakashi sent a volley throwing stars at him, they hit, but the figure didn't move. Kakashi gawked when he saw a stone Ed with "Sucker" written down the front. He turned, but only in time to feel extra weight wrap around him and see a blade hovering above his throat. Edward.
"Got you." Kakashi could feel the smirk on Ed's face, but the Jounin would not give up so easily. He forced Ed's blade from him, realizing the teen's arm was metal and turned his body in a way to grab onto Ed and flip the teen around and off him. Ed didn't go so willingly. Edward's left leg was wrapped around the back of him and the grip was so strong, Kakashi knew he'd be getting a bruise later. Yet eventually Ed had to let go.
Ed landed with his palm planted on the ground then flipped over. Both were panting heavily. Kakashi spoke, "You have a metal arm and leg."
Ed glared, "What's your point?"
"Just curious how someone your age would obtain such things."
Ed glared, "None of your business."
"True, but you can't be older than twelve."
Ed snapped and lunged at Kakashi, "I'M SIXTEEN!"
"Oh really?" The Jounin evaded easily.
"Damn you!" Ed lunged; Kakashi dodged; Ed knelt quickly and swung his left leg, sweeping Kakashi's feet from under himself.
"Now, now, children don't say things like that." Kakashi grabbed Ed's automail arm and sent him flying.
It was dark now, very dark. Kakashi hadn't seen where or how far he'd thrown Edward. But it didn't really matter. He'd won the little fight.
"HEY ONE-EYE!"
Kakashi turned at the sudden yell. Edward was there, glaring at him. One-eye? Well, that could be assumed about his appearance. Kakashi sent several kunai knives flying at Ed, but Ed was too quick. He transmuted the ground into a large cannon, well, several large cannons and sent a volley of cannon balls at him. Kakashi had no chance of escaping, well…
The fake Edward was immediately replaced in Kakashi's place and where the Jounin went, no one could see. It was dark. Ed looked up to see the damage done. The ninja had gotten away. That was a minor setback. Actually, he'd anticipated it. Ed again clapped his hands together to upheaval the ground, making it difficult to walk upon. A faint grunt was heard behind Ed.
He turned. Even though Ed knew where Kakashi was, he was too later because Kakashi grabbed him in a strangle hold faster than anyone could say, "hotdog".
Edward slipped from underneath Kakashi's grasp and attempted to trip him, but the ninja jumped and threw a knife at him. Ed rolled out of the way, only to crash into a heap of rubble caused from his upheaval. Ed sent a path of spikes at Kakashi, the Jounin only to dance through it. Ed sent larger, more violent spikes circling all around Kakashi.
The ninja sliced off one of the tips of the spikes, hurtled it at Edward and used the bottom half to nimbly jump out of the circle of spikes.
Ed had transmuted his arm back to normal during the fight, so transmutation was easier, but now he unsheathed it again, ducked underneath the spike tip and leapt at Kakashi.
Kakashi blocked with a knife, each holding the position fighting each other's strength.
"You're tired," Kakashi mused.
Ed grunted, "So are you."
They jumped back both unable to break through each other. Ed glared, "You're holding back."
"So are you, but not as much as I am."
"Then how 'bout we go all out and end this once and for all?"
"Are you sure? You are just a kid."
Ed sneered, "I'm not a kid."
Kakashi mused for a second on Ed's comments. Not a kid, eh? Well, he thought if he doesn't want to be treated like one then so be it. Kakashi placed a hand over the headband covering his left eye, "I accept your challenge."
Ed grinned evilly sheathing his blade, "Good because I'm not going to wait!"
Again Ed lunged in the direction of Kakashi. The Jounin dodged, but he then realized that Ed wasn't going for him, but rather the area right behind him. Ed slid to a stop, clapped his hands and a spew of large rock like a hand came up from the ground to grasp him.
It was the same move he'd pulled on Psiren only so long ago, but Ed also knew Kakashi would get out of this one. He'd keep the ninja on his toes and find the opportune moment to take him out.
Kakashi leapt from the giant hand about to envelope him and stood a fair distance away. Lifting his headband away to reveal the Sharingan. Ed was bond to use his 'technique' again, where he clapped his hands together. There was something there that resembled what the ninja did, yet different. Kakashi wanted to know what Ed was doing.
A crevasse was opening up beneath Kakashi, not a large one, so Kakashi jumped up. He met Ed in the air who transmuted the blade into his arm. Kakashi got a grasp at what Ed was doing. An image of a circle with symbols and other shapes flashed through his mind but disappeared a moment later. Was that…alchemy? It was no ninja trick, Kakashi mused, blocking off Ed's attacks.
"HOLD!" A loud voice erupted from the sidelines, "The fight will now cease! Overtime is not optional!"
"SHUT UP!" Ed yelled and sent a line of spikes at the speaker who yelped and eventually revoked what he said.
"I'm going to finish this once and for all," Ed was grinning.
Kakashi looked amused, "But you're tired."
"YOU SHUT UP TOO!" Ed glared at the ninja and lunged again, with another attack of alchemy.
Kakashi sighed, yes. Finish this once and for all. He stood there and waited to get close enough to Ed. He did, dodged just in time, and ripped cut him over the shoulder. Ed gasped a little from the pain and turned to see Kakashi.
On the other hand, Kakashi took out a scroll, swiped the blood off the knife onto a scroll and made weird hand signs with it and placed it on the ground.
Ed didn't look amused.
Suddenly a dog came out of the ground and chomped on his left leg. Another came and chomped on his right arm. Ed glared at the two, "What, can't get a good taste you bastards?"
Ed flung the two dogs off him both landing in a heap then with a puff of smoke both were gone.
"It seems I underestimated you."
"What the hell was that?" Ed glared at Kakashi.
"One of my simpler ninja tricks, degraded from its original form."
"I THOUGHT WE WERE GOING ALL OUT?"
"Did I agree to that?" Kakashi mused.
Ed glared again. Kakashi then grinned, "All right, I will go 'all out'." Again he made hand motions and this time he held as if blue light in his hands.
Ed clapped his hands together, not wanting to loose. Both Ed and Kakashi slapped their hands down on the ground and both had cages erected around them. Kakashi's was thick with alchemical binding arrays written all over it and Ed's was of the blue light Kakashi held in his hand. It was tie, but Ed had something else coming. Again he slapped the ground and a hole appeared with a latter.
Kakashi looked at Ed as he climbed down, out of the cage, and disappeared only to reappear several moments later through a hole outside the cage. He grinned, "I won."
Kakashi gave genuine smile although not seen through his mask, "So it ends. You win, fair and square. I can't get out of this cage."
Ed grinned evilly, "Maybe I'll leave you there."
Kakashi frowned, "But the fight is over."
"YOU CALLED ME SMALL!"
Kakashi thought back through the day's events. He went to the store to buy some food for the next few days then planned out what he'd be doing with Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto for training for the next few days. He read two Come, Come Paradise books and then reported to the Main hall and met Ed. "You don't look like much".
The Jounin looked at Ed, "I didn't say small."
"BUT YOU MEANT SMALL!"
"You are small, unless you're lying about your age."
"DAMN YOU! I'm sixteen! Not twelve! AND I'M NOT SHORT OR SMALL OR TINY OR A 'LITTLE PERSON'!"
"Oh really?"
"SHUT UP!"
"I think this battle is a tie."
Ed and Kakashi turned to see the Colonel standing there.
"Colonel?"
"It seems that FullMetal has won the fight with actions, but the Copy Ninja has won with words."
Kakashi and Ed looked at each other. Ed was frowning; Kakashi looked amused, which pissed Ed off even more.
"An angry solider fights blind. It means you shouldn't let the enemy's taunts get to you. Haven't I told that to you before, FullMetal?"
Ed frowned. Of course he remembered it, but he wouldn't let the Colonel know. He responded, "No."
The Colonel twitched because he knew Ed knew. He just wouldn't admit it "Fine, now you do know," he paused, "Good job today now get this place cleaned up."
"Yes sir." Ed turned to see the wreckage he'd created. There was the statue of the hand, the upheaval of nearly all the battlefield, massive spikes sticking out everywhere. Come to think of it, Ed had done all of that; the ninja had done nothing. Also, Ed was the one to attack more than 95 percent of the time.
Truthfully, Edward was exhausted. And correcting the ground would take a lot more out of him. He'd have to let the ninja go if he were to fix the ground properly and so Edward set to work.
---
People wandering back, as the battlefield hadn't taken up the whole field thankfully, were already ordering food as stalls had been set up just as the night before, or rather they hadn't been moved. Candles and lights were finally being light. Ed had fixed the ground and in place had erected many picnic tables. They were stone, not dirt as Ed had found stone underneath the surface of dirt.
No one saw a lone person slip out of the masses of people and into a small building not too far away. It seemed normal, as some rather go home after the day's events. But this person did not turn on any lights, yet just shut the door, covered the windows and silently stand near a wall.
"You came," a voice stated.
"What? Do you think I'm that stupid?"
"Heh," the voice laughed, "It was very interesting today. How did you get FullMetal to fight?"
"I didn't do anything. The boy thought it for demonstrations on his own."
"Interesting. No matter. You remember what I told you?"
"Of course. How could I forget? You held me at knifepoint."
The feeling of a vile smile came from the other, "Good. Everything is going according to plan."
The voice paused, "I'm sending someone with you to make sure you don't fail."
"I won't fail. I promise you that."
"We shall see, but you are also short-sighted. I have other reasons for his presence there."
"Your wish is command."
The owner voice grinned more evilly, "Later then," and vanished.
---
"Hey it's that kid!"
"That was really awesome what he and Master Kakashi did, although the fire man was my favorite."
"He's just like a monkey. I'd never be able to do that."
Edward cringed. He wanted to pummel the faces of the people around him, but was too exhausted to. All he could do was yell, but was too exhausted to do that as well. He would just eat his ramen; go back to the lodge and go to sleep. Maybe he'd get to talk to the Colonel before that.
"Brother!"
Ed had sat down next to his brother against the side of building, "Hey Al. How've you been?"
"Never mind about me. You were wonderful."
Ed looked at his brother, "I hate that guy."
"Why? He seemed nice enough."
"He called me small!"
But Brother, Al thought, you are small. He thought up something else to say, "When do you think we can go home?"
Ed was silent for a few minutes, "I keep talking to the Colonel but he keeps saying that we have to stay here. But we have more important stuff we need to be doing."
"Like finding the Philosopher's stone or anyway to return to normal."
Ed let a small smile slip across his features, "Yeah, I'll get you out of that tin can one of these days."
"But we have to get your limbs back. Automail is so tough on you."
"I'll be fine. We need to get your body back. That's top priority."
Al only shook his head. Several seconds past when he asked a question he'd asked once before but failed, "What are we going to do when we do get back to normal? Maybe I should join the military too."
"Nah. It's enough for me to be on the bed of needles. We don't need the both of us being ridiculed and pushed around by the people and the government. I'll stay in so we can have live off the money I make."
"And I don't want you going off on dangerous missions. I want to settle down. We don't have a home and well…" All looked down to see his brother smiling at him.
"Don't worry, Al. Once we get back to normal I'll get a desk job."
"Really?"
"Sure, why not?"
Al looked at the ground, grinning to himself, "Thank you brother."
"No problem," Ed finished the last of his meal and stood stretching, "I'm going to go see the Colonel now ab- HEY YOU!"
"Brother?"
"That kid's here again. I saw him spying on us! I'm going to pummel him!"
"Brother…you're too tired to do that." But Al was too late in saying that. Ed had spotted the 'strange kid' and took off, leaving Al to his own devices.
"Oh brother…"
Ed grabbed the back of the kid's shirt and turned him around. The 'strange kid' glared, "Yes?"
"Why are you following Al and I around?"
"I don't trust you," Sasuke's answer was abrupt.
"Fine, but that doesn't give you any right to pry into other people's business. Next time if you want to know something, just ask," with that Ed walked off to find the Colonel. Sasuke watched Ed.
Ed looked up and down, "Where is that bastard Colonel?"
"Looking for someone?" It was Kakashi.
Ed glanced over at the Jounin Ninja, "Yeah, why do you want to know?"
Kakashi raised an eyebrow, "Nothing. But if it's that Colonel, I recommend that you ask about learning any ninja techniques. It'll take time, but you'll find them useful."
"Sorry," Ed said looking away finally spotting Colonel Bastard, "Can't. I have other plans for my life."
ANs:
(1) I had a little trouble with how Kakashi fights, so basically I had Ed attack hima nd Kakashi defend.
(2) I do plan on putting Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura in a lot more, but inflitrating them right now is a bit hard. I suppose the next chapter will hold a lot more of them.
(3) Only thing I really need is someone who has the time and the ablity to actually help me with my grammer. I have no idea what's wrong with it. Probably because I haven't written anything in a long time that getting back into proper writing is kind of faded away. Can anyone help me?
(4) I really don't have anything to comment on this chapter besides I had very little imagination on how they should fight...I used all my references... -sigh-
(5) Review Responses can be found here: http: (DOUBLE SLASH) www (DOT) anzwers (DOT) org (SLASH) free (SLASH) scifijesus (SLASH) fmamerr (DOT) html
On A Side Note:
(1) This has nothing to really do with Endless Moments, well, it kind of does. It's the stats page. I see random people there and I'm like "Who're you?" But I'm too afraid to ask. I'd really wish they'd review so I can say Thank you and answer any questions they have, but I guess this is the only thing I can give them. Okay PEOPLE WHO ARE ON MY STATS (favs/alerts) FOR THIS STORY AND I HAVE NO IDEA WHO YOU ARE...THANKS!
-crickets chirp-
I failed...
(2) Alright, pretty much here is where I say I cannot keep any promises on updating on time and being one to updatea lot. I mean, this is the fastest I have updated for any of my stories well, besidesmy HP one, but that one...well, let's not get into that. Anyway, two people here know that I'm in Karate. It is very stressful and since I am a higher-ranking belt now, I'm to be expected to do more, like help in classes and the like. (I need to make up my last belts helping time since I was gone for 2 years and no one had the heart to tell me that I needed to do that. But then they'd tell me it was my fault...-cries-) At least I got to test. Also I'm in the IB Program, so it takes a lot of tiem because they like to give homework. One more thing: there's no easy way to say this save I don't want any "I'm sorries" and the like. I get that enough. So here I go, my mom is a single parent and works all the time (becuase my dad died) so there's a lot to do around the house concerning chores and we do live in a big house too...cheap though. Basically I have those three things that take up a lot of my time so updating is going to be random.
-Scifi Out