Ok, here's chp 2. Personally, one of my favourites. Yep.
Disclaimer: No one owns FMA except for those people with lots of lawyers. Yep.
God Damn Mustang, pretending to be all nice and sincere…and then put him on trial. He didn't have time for this. He needed to find out what was wrong with Rena. Sasuke growled and punched the wall in the hallway, which got him a couple of stares. She went missing for two weeks and suddenly pops up with those two freaks…well, one freak and a semi-normal guy except for the fact he didn't die. He had a feeling her research would have to have SOME sort of answer. But how could he possibly get out to the countryside where they had conducted their experiments? He glanced at the window. Actually…there was a way…
Envy was silently fuming, as was Lust he bet. He hated these 'family dinners' where everyone sat and ate at the same table, politely. Father would reprimand and correct bad table manners. It was supposed to bring all eight of them a little closer. Yeah right, snorted Envy, half of the disputes originated from these stupid dinners. Wrath was being clingy and annoying at this event. She didn't like Father. One time she had showed Envy something odd. It was pyramid of power. Envy was on top followed by Lust and Greed, under them was her and Gluttony, followed by Sloth then paramecium. He had no clue where she had learned that word, or what the hell it meant, or where Father and Pride were for that matter, until he saw the rest. Father came before Pride, but both were below amoebas. Because of Wrath's clinginess, he was now stuck next to Greed on the left and Wrath on his right, and Gluttony, the world's greatest grub snatcher an arm's reach away. Lust was smacking/severing the fat guy's hands and nose to keep him from eating all the food. Presently Envy was patting Wrath's head, who was leaning on his shoulder. She didn't like being near Father. Father was however watching both him and Wrath's actions with interest.
"Hey Envy, pass the salt," smiled Greed.
"Get it yourself blockhead," snarled the green-haired teen.
"Now, now," said Father waving his fork at the two of them, "Siblings must not fight. They must share. Because sharing is caring."
"All the more reason not to," muttered Greed, "I don't care…"
"You better, or I'll make you," smiled Father warningly.
Gluttony was in a dilemma. He couldn't reach the turkey…he wanted to know what it tasted like. He decided to ask his second bestest sister who was closest to it.
"Wrath! Wrath!" he called, "I can't reach that!" said Gluttony who was very upset. Envy raised an eyebrow at the fat round, bald Neanderthal like man. He looked like an adult but he was more like a baby. Well actually, more of an over-grown baby… Wrath reached out and grabbed the turkey with her fork and tossed it over to Gluttony, fork and all. Gluttony caught the whole thing in his mouth.
"Look, the family morons are much better at sharing than you are!" said Father.
"Who're you calling a moron?" growled Wrath in a very uncharacteristic tone of voice. She sounded threatening and dangerous. Her voice had also lost the child-like characteristic it usually had.
"No one called anyone anything. Except for me calling Greed a blockhead," he said patting her head, "Father didn't call anyone anything Shirou-chan" he repeated again.
"Envy?" said Father expectantly. Envy swore at him internally.
Envy picked up the salt and passed it to Lust who was on the other end of the table by extending his arm.
"Here."
"I don't want salt"
"Take it. I'm sharing" he growled.
She took it. The last time Envy had that look in his eye, she had ended up with pink hair for a week. Envy gave Greed the sugar bowl.
"I don't want sugar."
"Well too bad! Suck it up Rocky!"
Greed flicked Envy's head, after hardening his hands; Envy in return, dumped the salad bowl on the bigger man's head. Soon a full scale fistfight had broken out and eventually turned into a food fight. Father just sat there, resignedly, shaking his head the entire time.
A whole blasted week to get across the city to get to the stupid country side. They had let him go, but only with an escort of a State Alchemist. Thank God that this guy hadn't been at the exam, or he'd know him. Sasuke was already planning to 'lose' the Lieutenant.
"Sasuke-kun?" asked a familiar voice behind him. Turning slightly to see who it was, he gave a double take.
"SAKURA-CHAN?" he exclaimed shocked, at the beautiful young woman holding a parasol at the station. Sakura had been a childhood friend of his and Rena's.
"You're-You're beautiful!" he gushed. She giggled.
"You look quite nice yourself!" she smiled, as she glanced around, "Where's Shirou-chan?"
Sakura was one other person who could use that pet name without getting pulverized.
Sasuke felt as if he had been punched in the stomach.
"She's…she's not here. She's still got some work that she put off to the last minute."
Sakura made a face.
"That doesn't sound like her. Usually You're the one to slack off!"
He was about to protest when his escort, who he had momentarily 'lost', caught up with him. Lieutenant Strong was a huge muscular man with a voice like a foghorn.
"MAJOR KUSANAGI!" he shouted.
Sasuke froze, and if possible, he'd have turned blue. The big man burst through the crowd.
"Major you should know better than to run off like that!" he yelled, "And who is this stunning young lady? Your girlfriend?"
Sasuke fell over from the sound waves coming from the man's mouth. Sakura stared at Sasuke.
"Major?"
"I'll tell you later…" he said weakly
"Are you all right sir?" proclaimed the man, "You must take care of yourself, or you won't be fit for the trial!"
"TRIAL!"
"I'll…explain later…"
The rooms were just like they'd left them. Just dustier. The key to Rena's disappearance was here…somewhere in this mess. It took him another week to finally discover Rena's findings.
"IVE GOT IT!" he yelled excitedly, looking for all the world, like a 6 year old who just got new baseball cards.
"What? Got What?" asked Sakura opening the door with food. Excited, Sasuke brought down books, bits of papers and hundreds of sheets and dumped them on the kitchen table in front of Sakura and the Lieutenant.
"Rena, was researching human transmutation."
"That's illegal!" exclaimed Strong. Sasuke ignored him.
"There has been no case of a successful one but," he said holding up a sheet of paper that was scribbled all over, "Rena came up with a theory on how to do it, and drew connections from all sorts of stuff. She was also very interested in ancient legends." He held up a drawing of the Uroborus.
"Especially this and the Homunculi"
"Fairy tales," scoffed Strong.
"A homuncu-waah?" asked Sakura.
"A theoretical perfect Human transmutation. A dead person come back to life," explained Sasuke.
"I'll just say that Rena was quite persistent in her belief that a Homunculus was created in the legend of the city that vanished in a night. She says that the Uroborus represents immortality. And this…"he said unrolling a large sheet of paper. "Is the transmutation circle to create one…" he said his voice straining.
"Sakura-chan…I lied to you. Rena…Rena's been missing for four weeks…I saw her…marked with the Uroborus….she…didn't recognize me. Those with her didn't die…" He looked up at the two of them. "Rena is now a Homunculus."
"So that's what they think it is?" scoffed Greed. Lust snickered.
"Yes. He's not as smart as she was. He should've noticed that the bit concerning Father, was a bit odd."
"Wrath wasn't a stupid person, the Lieutenant-colonel wouldn't leave her findings in writing where anyone could see them," sighed Envy, he paused before asking, "Where is Wrath anyway?"
"Father sent her and Gluttony to the grave yard," said Pride. Envy and Greed exchanged looks. Put two idiots like them together and something BAD was bound to happen.
Sasuke tried to order the Lieutenant to stay at the house. When the man refused, Sasuke tried to intimidate him to not come.
"Look Strong, where I'm going, you may not live."
"It is my duty to protect you while you are here on vacation!"
"VACATION? Where I'm going it's going to be close to hell!"
"Just, where are you going?" asked Sakura.
"Sensei's…" he said scratching his head, "If she doesn't kill me before I get there…"
Three minutes later
"You're not obliged to come Sakura-chan…" sighed Sasuke as they continued up the hill.
"No… I'm… fine…"insisted the girl, breathing hard, "By the way…where does your teacher live?"
"Sensei? Out here in the woods. We studied under her when we were little. It was Shirou-chan's idea."
"That's sweet…"started Sakura, when a book suddenly slammed into Sasuke's face, knocking him flat.
"SASUKE-KUN!"
"SASUKE! WHAT'S THE MEANING OF THIS?" roared a young slender woman with Eastern features. Slanted eyes, black hair, slightly yellow skin, she was about 30, possibly younger.
"S-Sensei!" exclaimed Sasuke.
"IDIOT! Of course it's me!" roared the woman.
"MAJOR!" exclaimed Strong, running forward.
Sasuke winced. His Sensei gave him such a glare he flinched. OH boy was he going to get it.
"I teach you and your sister alchemy and you join the ARMY!" Sasuke went flying backwards.
"Madame, do you know that…" started Strong, when Sasuke's sensei interrupted him.
"URUSAI!" she yelled sending him rolling back down the hill.
Wrath and Gluttony were confused. They had been told to come here but to do What?
Usually they were never let anywhere unaccompanied except at home, and if they were brought along, it was usually to blow stuff up or get rid of people. So what to do now, in a graveyard, filled with nothing of much importance in their opinions. Gluttony tugged slightly at Wrath's skirt.
"Hey…Can I eat that?" he asked, pointing towards a tombstone.
Without Envy there to tell her what to do, Wrath was hopelessly confused and indecisive. She hadn't been given orders, so she had no clue as to what to tell her older brother.
"Ummm…ano…."she said, trying very hard to come up with an answer.
"Do you usually eat stuff like that?"
The round fellow nodded eagerly.
"Then I guess it's okay…"she started to say, but Gluttony was gone within three seconds with a happy cry and started to take big chunks out of the rock.
Wrath contented herself to sit down by a tree and take a nap.
Heh. You know, I don't think I'll say when this story switches writers...meh.