Naruto yawned as he stretched his arms above his head. He groaned as he suddenly felt nauseous. He blinked repeatedly to fully wake himself up as he looked at the clock. He almost fell back into his pillow. He had gotten around six hours of sleep, thankfully.

Heaving a sigh, he sluggishly got out of bed and pulled on his orange jumpsuit. The event from the night before had completely drained him of energy, and all he wanted to do was just go back to sleep.

Stifling a yawn, he exited his room and entered the small kitchen area, to find the golden haired child, who had recently given his name as Ed, up and about. Naruto blinked. "What are you..."

Ed glanced his way then turned back to the large bowl in front of him. "Equivalent Exchange. I'm making you cookies to repay for helping me with this." At the word, 'this', Ed pointed an index finger at the bandage cleanly wrapped around his head.

Naruto didn't recall wrapping the bandage so neatly. Did Ed change his bandages himself? If so, then did he really feel the need to "repay" Naruto if he didn't even do that much of a good job. Naruto shook his head. That didn't matter. What mattered was he did something good and now he was getting cookies!

Naruto grinned. "You're welcome. I'm always one for helping people out. Believe it!"

Ed raised an eyebrow. "'Believe it'? Really? That sounds like some sort of cringe catchphrase."

Naruto crossed his arms and made a face. "Yeah, whatever." He looked over at Ed's hands to see his right hand in a white glove, which happened to also be covered in flour and other assortments of goods. He raised an eyebrow. "How come you're keeping one hand gloved and the other hand not...gloved...?"

The two hands mixing the gooey goodness in the bowl froze, so stiffly, that Naruto might have mistaken this movement for a statue if he didn't know who the hands belonged to. "...Ed...?"

There was a pause, that seemed to stretch on longer than it actually had, before Ed responded, his voice devoid of any emotion. "Like I said, I'm going to make some cookies. Then it will be equivalent, and I'm getting out of here."

Naruto examined Ed's face, then questioned. "Wait...equivalent...earlier you said, 'Equivalent Exchange'. What did you mean by that?"

Ed blinked rapidly as he just stared into the bowl of cookie dough, looking a little spaced out. He had stopped stirring once more.

It took a few more seconds for Naruto to realize that Ed actually HAD spaced out of it, and he should probably do something about it. He snapped his fingers in front of Ed's still pale face to catch his attention. "HEY! Are you in there? I'm kind of in the middle of talking to you right...now...?"

He stopped when Ed turned his head around to glare at Naruto, a glare so fierce that Naruto almost shuddered. Actually...he did shudder. He felt that weird feeling once more. The one he felt when Ed performed that weird Jutsu with the red light. What exactly was going on?

"..." Ed narrowed his eyes, causing his heated glare to turn a few degrees colder before dying out. He turned back to the bowl and began mixing once more. "...Sorry."

Awkward silence settled once more as Naruto racked his brain to come up with something to break the silence. "So...uh...are you a rogue ninja or something? How come you didn't want me knowing your name earlier?"

That apparently was the wrong way to go as Ed gave out an exasperated sigh and turned towards Naruto, putting his hand on his hip. "What part of don't ask me any questions do you not understand? I won't answer them."

"So...that's a 'yes', then?" Naruto replied carefully, gauging Ed's reaction, which seemed in between "I'm pissed off" and "I'm going to murder you in your own apartment with the spatula".

Naruto gulped and carefully crept out of the kitchen. He didn't feel like pissing off Ed any more than he already had. Though, he still thought it was strange that Ed was going out of his way to bake Naruto cookies. He never recalled anyone ever doing that for him.

In fact, he didn't recall anyone going out of their way to do anything nice for him at all.

Ever.

Naruto was snapped out of the manga he was reading by an incensed voice, which belonged to his current house guest, Ed the Question Mark Wrapped in Blankets.

"Huh? Whadya say?" Naruto slurred his words together. In hindsight, it would have been better for him to have taken a nap instead of lounge on the couch and reading manga while eating some ramen. Especially considering since he was exhausted and the aroma of chocolate cookies wafting through the air made him extremely hungry. Which explained the ramen.

Ed huffed and crossed his arms. "Really, kid?"

That caught Naruto's attention. "H-hey, what?! You think I'm a kid? What about you? You're shorter than me!"

Naruto hadn't realized he had struck a nerve with the boy until he screamed at the top of his lungs in reply. "DON'T CALL ME SHORT, YOU IDIOTIC, VEXATIOUS, AGGRAVATING, HYPERACTIVE ORANGE!"

Naruto blinked rapidly as he leaned backwards, his eyes wide. What the hell was this kid saying? And could Naruto even call him that, if he really wasn't one? But how old was he? Ed did seem to be pretty short...

Naruto opened his mouth to protest as Ed went through every word in the English language solely for the purpose of cursing Naruto's name. Ed felt like a walking, talking, book. With an attitude to boot.

"...so are you going to answer my question, or what? How old are you? You look like a child, to me."

If looks could kill...

Ed scowled and crossed his arms. His golden eyes grew distant for a moment before he in-took a deep breath of air and glared at Naruto. "Okay, listen. I can't answer any of your questions. I won't, no matter how many times you ask me. You're getting a freaking privilege just to be calling me by my name. Like I said earlier, I'm leaving as soon as I'm done with the cookies. Which...is actually right now."

"Huh?!"

Ed rolled his eyes and began walking towards the kitchen. "I came to let you know that the cookies are finished. That also means I'm leaving right now, so..." Ed licked his lips before picking up his brown bag and cloak, which were both draped over the edge of the couch. "Yeah." Ed finished lamely.

Naruto still didn't understand what was going on. Ed was just going to leave? Just like that? "H-hold on a minute..." Naruto's voice felt weak to his ears.

Ed raised an eyebrow at Naruto. "Come on. You've lived on your own for how long? I'm pretty sure you can still live once I leave."

"That's not it!" Naruto protested, anger and trepidation creeping up in his voice. "I just..." Naruto narrowed his eyes at Ed. "I'm just saying...you stole from someone," Here was where Ed let out an annoyed groan. Naruto continued. "And on the off chance that you're a rogue ninja, that would make me a traitor to Konoha." With each word, Naruto puffed out his chest and grew more confident, Ed growing more annoyed. "Which," He paused for dramatic affect. "I am not."

Ed blinked slowly, unimpressed. "Okay then. How would your 'village' feel if they found out that you helped a rogue ninja, who in turn, baked you cookies?"

"...well, everybody loves cookies."

"Uh huh."

"So...they would give me a free pass on this...?"

Ed made an error type of noise from the back of his throat. "Nope. Try again."

Naruto stared back at Ed helplessly. "So, what's it then?"

Ed shrugged. "Try getting killed for assisting a 'rogue ninja' as you've apparently dubbed me."

"...that doesn't sound very promising."

"No." Ed sounded amused, causing Naruto to glare at him. "Well, seriously. I have to go. And there isn't anything you can do to stop me, kid."

Ed moved to walk out the apartment then stopped. Naruto had stuck out his foot in an attempt to prevent Ed from going anywhere. Ed stared down at Naruto's foot incredulously before slowly looking up towards Naruto's face, which was grim and determined. "Sorry." Naruto said unhappily, not sorry at all. "But I can't let you go anywhere. You pretty much admitted that you were a rogue ninja, so as a ninja of Konoha, I can't let you leave!"

Ed raised an eyebrow and looked Naruto up and down before laughing aloud. "Seriously? You think you're going to stop me? And don't you need one of those headbands to be a ninja? You just have those stupid green goggles of yours."

Naruto glared and clenched his fists, standing in a fighting position. "I can stop you. I WILL stop you."

Ed stared at Naruto for a few more moments before sighing exasperatedly and dropping the bag and the cloak on the ground. He rolled his shoulders and cracked his left knuckles. "Alright then." Ed answered casually, regarding Naruto with another unimpressed look. "It's been a while since I've had a good sparring session. I hope you'll be able to fulfill that."

Naruto tensed as Ed brought his arms to a peculiar fighting position. His right hand was held outwards in a chopping position, while his left was held back in a fist. His knees were bent, while his legs were shifted slightly backwards. Naruto took a deep breath to steady himself. Hopefully, Ed didn't end up using that weird Jutsu from earlier.

His eyes wandered towards Ed's mysterious golden ones. They were filled with...Naruto's stomach filled with dread. While it was true Ed's eyes didn't hold the same hatred, contempt, and doubt that the villagers did, but right now, it did hold one of the three, and that was doubt.

He hated when people doubted him. That was one of the reasons why he was so adamant on becoming Hokage. To get the entire village to acknowledge him. Not just as someone capable, but as someone who was a hero. Someone to look up to, not down on. Someone who they could respect. Someone who deserved praise...Naruto was going to become Hokage, no matter what.

He took one last steadying breath and regarded Ed with the most confident and determined look he could muster. Ed sure was a nice person, but if he really was a rogue ninja... 'Sorry, Ed. Thanks for the cookies, though. I'll make sure to give you some when I have you tied up!'

"Well?" Ed questioned impatiently, seemingly ready to move on.

With a deep, steady voice, emitting confidence that Naruto gave himself a pat on the back for omitting, he replied. "Let's do this!"

And on that note, the two boys shifted their feet, and charged.