A/N: I would like to thank everyone who reviewed the first chapter as well as everyone who added this story to their favorites and follows.

Looking up at the tree behind their house, Emma wondered if she could climb it without using her hands. It had been a few months since she got her memories back but not once had she attempted to do her old tricks again, not with Edward being upset with their little brother and her annoying nap times. Now, however, was the perfect time to do these tricks. Her father was too busy stuck in his office while her mother was making them lunch. Alphonse and Edward were sleeping like there was no tomorrow, which meant now was the perfect time to do it.

Emma placed her leg on the tree, allowing her chakra to channel down to the sole of her foot before placing the next foot on top of it. If she was going to protect her family then she needed to become strong. No, if she wanted to protect this country then she needed to join the army. The army would give her more than enough money to help support her siblings and satisfy the desire her wandering spirit.

"You could choose another occupation Naruto," Kurama whispered as she took another step on the tree trunk. "You have already seen war and seen its consequence. Why would you want to go through it again? You could wish for another job to satisfy your desire to see the country."

"Edward is going to become like Father; he is going to be an alchemist," Emma answered, remembering how she caught her brother looking at their father's books with curiosity. "Alphonse likes looking around and I know he is going to be like me, wanting to see the world for what it can offer. I want my brothers to do what they love in a country that is safe and for this country to be safe, I will need to work in the government and fight in wars so they have the chance to do what they want. Besides, I like fighting and being a soldier is all I have ever known. I can't imagine being anything else."

She turned her body and walked towards the end of the branch before taking a seat on it. Being a doctor was the last thing in her mind while Alchemy brought her no joy. Sure it was interesting, reminding her of the sealing text that she would spend ages reading on but she could not bring herself to do the research. Alchemy could be a tool she could use to protect her siblings and parents but this was as far as she would go.

Taking a deep breath, the blond-haired girl turned to look at the clear blue sky. Protecting her family was going to be her priority in this life, making sure to live to the age of eighteen would be the other and her final priority was to have a family of her own and be her own boss.

Even now when she closed her eyes, Emma could imagine the future she wanted. Her brother smiling and teasing about her being promoted while her mother hugged her, telling her just how proud she was of them. Their father would give her a small smile before saying to her that she made the right choice in joining the army. It would be a happy day once she reached the position where she only had to listen to one person or to no one at all.

"Where are you, Emmy?"

Her mother's voice snapped her out of her daydreams and brought her back to the reality of her situation. It would be a long time before she could join the army and even longer time before she would get the position that she so desired. For now, she was just a child filled with two sets of memories. For now, she would need to be content in being raised by her parents alongside her brothers.

"I'm up here, Mother."

Trisha blinked her eyes and stared up at the tree branch, where Emma sat with her legs crossed over. The fear and concern in her mother's eyes made the blond-haired girl smile. It felt good to have a mother who was worried about her, who cared about her safety. How many times had she wished for someone to care for her? How many times had she cried herself to sleep because of the lack of love she had? Too many times but now Emma had someone who loved her.

"How did you get up there?" Her mother cried, looking around their backyard to find the source of her climbing the tree. Shaking her head, Trisha sighed. "Stay right there, Emma! I'm going to get your father to make you come down here. God, this is what you are like at the age of 2, I don't know what you are going to be like when you are ten."

Emma giggled, earning a smile from her mother. Was it wrong for her to consider Trisha her mother? Even though she gave birth to this body of hers, her memories were that of another person. She had never known Kushina Uzumaki but her first mother threw her life away just to protect her and the same went for Minato. Would it be okay if they understand her devotion to these new set parents of hers? She probably would never get the answer to that question.

"Kushina wouldn't be angry with you if you consider Trisha, your mother," Kurama stated. "Trisha still gave birth to your second human body and is giving you the love that your first mother wished she could have given you. All Kushina ever wanted from you was to be happy and if calling Trisha your mother makes you happy then she would be happy."

"Kushina Uzumaki will always be my first mother," Emma declared. "She protected me from you and carried me for ten months in my first life...I will never ever stop considering her my mother."

"Emma, come here."

The blonde blinked her eyes at the sight of her father holding onto the tree trunk, hand stretched out as if asking her to take his hand. Smiling widely, the little girl launched herself at Hohenheim, who grabbed hold of her. Her father stared down at her, flickering his eyes towards her clean hands. He frowned but made no comment about it, instead, he slowly climbed down the tree. Once they finally reached close to the ground, he handed her to their mother.

"Emma Elric, don't climb any trees unless someone is watching you," her mother scolded as they walked towards the bedroom where she shared with her brothers. "You could have broken your arms or legs!"

"But it didn't happen, Mother," Emma said, waving her hands at her mother. "See? I'm not hurt."

"Emma, you could have been badly hurt if you have taken one wrong step," her mother pointed out as she placed her next to her sleeping brothers. "If anything happens to you then Mommy would be very sad and you don't want Mommy sad, do you?"

The blond-haired girl shook her head and stared at Trisha's eyes, which still shone with worry and concern, before looking up at the window, which displayed the outside world. In order to make her mother happy, Emma knew she would have to do her training when her mother was not looking for her. She would have to do it in the dead of night because telling her mother and father about chakra would be hard. Even with her nineteen years worth of memories, she still didn't know how to explain the concept of chakra.

She always left the difficult bits to Sakura.

"I won't do anything that worries Mommy," Emma said dutifully.

The young woman relaxed her shoulders and smiled at her, before stroking the little girl's blond hair. Closing her eyes and relaxing her body, Emma saw the images of the people she lost in her previous life. What happened to everyone else? Were Kakashi and Sakura successful in freeing everyone from their dreams? Who became the Sixth Hokage? There were so many things she wondered but she was content to wait for the answers. For now, she would enjoy her mother stroking her long hair.

The past had taught her that you should treasure the time you had with your family and friends because you would never know when it would be taken away from you.

If there was one thing Emma would admit without a second thought, it was the fact she was just as curious as Edward when it came to their father's studies. Ever since their mother had their photo taken, Hohenheim had spent every waking minute studying his journals and reading every alchemy book there was out there. What was driving him to spend hours in his office? Why didn't he ever notice her twin brother and her whenever they peeked through the door, hoping to gain his attention. What was so important in those books? Those were the questions running through her mind as she drank her milk and stared at her father.

"What are you thinking about, this time Emmy?" Edward whispered to her as he grabbed his own bottle of milk and placed it under the table. The blond-haired girl smiled and glanced at their younger brother, who was eating the yogurt Trisha brought for him, and then to her chatting parents, before finally taking the milk bottle from his right hand. "You have been acting funny ever since Mother made you wear a dress in our family photo."

Gulping down her brother's milk, the little girl stared at her brother's curious eyes. Should she tell him about the burning curiosity she had about their father's work? Or should she wait till their father was in his room before telling him? Either way, she wasn't going to keep her curiosity hidden from him. Edward deserved to know about her insatiable curiosity to know what was going through their father's mind.

"What are the two of you whispering about?" Her mother asked, drawing everyone's attention to the two of them.

"We were talking about how Father doesn't spend any time with us since he is always reading his books," Emma answered, staring straight into her father's golden eyes. Both of her parents blinked their eyes at her while her brother stared at her with wide eyes, no doubt realizing this was what had been in her mind for the past couple of minutes. Alphonse just stared at her with confusion. "Edward and I are trying to figure out why Father is studying so much."

"Emma…"

She felt her heart clenched at the sight of her father's sadness and wondered if it had been a good time to spring the question on him. There was no way Hohenheim and Trisha would ever tell her what was happening, not when they think she was too young to understand what was going on. To them, she was their little princess, their two-year-old daughter who didn't need to worry about a thing. It wasn't their fault they didn't know she had seventeen years worth of knowledge stuck in her head or that mentally she was a nineteen-year-old.

But it didn't mean it didn't hurt her not to know what was going on.

"I'm doing research that could help our family," Hohenheim answered before her mother could open her mouth to scold her for asking such personal questions during breakfast time. The blue-eyed girl tilted her head, stared at her father's body language before smiling widely at her father, who sighed and shook his head at her.

"Do you actually believe he is telling the truth, Naruto?" Kurama questioned her as she gulped down the bottle of milk her brother had given her to drink. The little girl didn't need to close her eyes to know the nine-tailed fox had an ugly scowl on his face. "If he is doing research that could help this family then why isn't he telling you what this research is? And why is Trisha so tense about the fact you and your brother are wondering why he was studying so much?"

"He isn't lying to me, Kurama but I also know he isn't telling me the whole truth," Emma answered, snatching the bread from the basket before Edward could take it away from her. Breaking the bread in half, she handed the other half to her twin before continuing on the conversation with the fox that had been with her in both lifetimes. "For now this will be enough for me."

"You have finally learned to become patient, brat."

"I didn't learn to become patient, Kurama," the blond-haired girl admitted as she spread butter on her bread. Staring at her sandwich, the little girl gazed at her father and smiling mother before looking at her two brothers, who looked at her with so much concern. "To be honest, I don't think I am ready to know the whole truth behind my father's research. I think it has to do with the reason why he thinks he is a monster…"

"And you are afraid if he tells you that it might ruin the image you have of him and that is why you aren't pushing him to go to further details," Kurama guessed as she took a bite of her sandwich. It didn't surprise her how the Kyuubi knew her real reason for not demanding more answers. Out of everyone in this table, only he knew the truth about her. He was the one who knew her deepest and darkest secrets, knew about her desires but most of all he knew how much she wanted to think their family was perfect.

"Can you blame me? I never truly had a father until the day I was reborn," Emma grumbled and she knew if she could see the fox that he would be looking at her with guilt. It had taken him so long to be reminded of the fact he hadn't been the only one to have to suffer on the day of her first birth. "I want things to remain peaceful; I want to be a little bit foolish and naive, Kurama. I just want to have the childhood I never got to experience….is that wrong? Is it wrong I want to hug them? Is it wrong I just want to pretend for a little bit that I haven't had blood in my hands! Is it wrong I don't want to know everything just yet? Is it wrong I want to be normal for just a while?"

She knew she was being hysterical but Neji's dead body, the blood leaking out of Sasuke's arms and the mountain of corpses that had surrounded her in her deathbed kept running through her mind as she asked Kurama those questions. Why did Truth let her have this life? Why let her have these memories when he knew it would cause her nothing but grief? Was it to serve as a reminder of how weak she had been? It must be because Emma would make sure to never see the corpse of someone she loved and cared for.

"Emma! Why are you crying?" Her mother cried. "Sweetheart, what is it? Honey, tell us what is wrong!"

Touching her chubby cheeks, the blue-eyed girl dimly realized the water was hitting the tips of her finger. No, Emma corrected herself, she had a river of tears flowing down her fingers. She might be Naruto Uzumaki but she was also Emma Elric at the same time. Despite having these memories, she still had the reaction of a two-year-old. She hadn't learned to control her emotions just yet...but she would soon. She would not let anyone use her emotions against her.

"It is nothing, Mother," Emma said, forcing herself to smile at the woman who had given her more love than she had ever experienced before. "I was just remembering the sad fairy tale that you read to me and Ed and how sad it was that the warrior princess never had her happy ending."

But unlike the story her mother told her and her own experience, Emma was determined not to end up dying at a young age.

Hohenheim thinned his lips and cleared his throat before opening his kids' bedroom, where he knew his daughter would be drawing images on the walls. Trisha had wanted to confront Emma about the real reason why she was crying but he doubted their daughter would ever tell the reason. Just like him, his daughter rather preferred to keep her mother in the dark then tell the truth. In fact, he doubted Emma would tell him the truth but he knew she would give him hints on what was going through her mind.

Well, she wasn't going to be willing to give him hints but he was better at reading her then Trisha ever was.

"Drawing again, Emma?" He asked as he took a seat beside his daughter on her bed. Tearing her eyes away from her piece of paper, the little girl stared up at him before giving him a small nod. He looked over his daughter's shoulder and frowned when he noticed there were Xingese characters written in a circle. No, Hohenheim corrected, noticing a difference in the stroke, this is a different language.

But the question was where was this language from?

"I'm making up a new language," his daughter said, drawing his attention away from her piece of paper. "It's pretty cool right? How many people could say they are making up a new language?"

"It is very similar to Xingese," Hohenheim informed his daughter as he stared at the piece of paper with interest. Now that he looked at it closer, he couldn't help but feel like he had seen that language somewhere but where had he seen it? Even though he had four-hundred years worth of knowledge, he still couldn't pinpoint where exactly he saw it. "Why are you making up a new language? Do you have something to hide from your mother and me?"

"Everyone has secrets," Emma said, fixing her eyes on him. "Mother and you have secrets just like Edward and me have secrets. If I don't want people to find out about my secrets then I need to make up a language, only I could understand. Secrets can be dangerous if people find out right? Edward and I took turns in reading that spy book Mother loved to read."

His daughter was just two years old and already she was thinking of making codes. He was torn between feeling proud of how intelligent Emma was or concern about the fact she already had secrets to hide from him. Why would she feel this way? Not even her twin brother acted like this way and he knew his oldest son was very much capable of thinking like Emma, except maybe even a little bit tamer. Hohenheim doubt Edward would go to the extent Emma was doing.

"And what secrets do you have, Emma?" Hohenheim asked, turning his head around as he tried to figure out where he had seen the image before. The character was similar to Xingese but the strokes were less and a few of the character didn't match any of the Xingese he knew. It could be a new language like Emma claimed but it looked familiar to him. In fact, the way the characters were being drawn looked familiar to him and if he didn't know any better, he would think it was Alchemy.

However, he knew better because the way it was being drawn wasn't similar to any Alchemy he knew.

"It won't be a secret if I tell you, will it?" His daughter said in a matter of fact tone as she added more characters into the paper. "It isn't anything bad if that is what you are scared about."

"Does it have to do why you were crying?" Hohenheim guessed. Judging from the way his daughter froze at his question, he must have hit the nail on the target. So his daughter's secret had something to do with her crying but what could it be? Emma had never truly been inside the small village without either him or Trisha by her side so what could it be? Did it have to do why she preferred to go to the forest even when her mother had warned her not to do it? No, his young daughter was always upset whenever he dragged her out of there. "You know you can tell me and your mother, Emma. We won't judge you."

"Do you ever dream about something as if you were there?" Emma asked quietly, staring at the piece of paper with a quietness that he didn't know his young daughter possessed. "Do you ever wake up and wish you could change things? I sometimes dream that I don't have you, Mother, Ed and even Al by my side. I dream of a place where I have no one to go to when I am sad and it hurts, Father. I dream of things and I wonder if it is all in my mind or if it was true."

He wished he could say to Emma he would always be by her side but at the rate, his research was going, Hohenheim knew he was going to leave his family behind to find a way to end his immortality. However, he understood his daughter's fears because it was the same fears he had. Even though he had Trisha and had three beautiful kids with her, he still wished he could change what happened in the past. He wished he didn't have blood staining his hands.

"I used to wish I could change things and even now there are still times where I wish I could have changed things," Hohenheim admitted, putting his large hand over his daughter's hair. Unlike Edward and Alphonse, he knew Emma always wanted to physical contact to feel comfort. "But it doesn't mean I can change things...there are things you can never change, Emma. Even if you don't have me or your mother, you will always have Edward and Alphonse by your side."

"How did you stop wishing to change things, Father?" His daughter asked with such a heart-broken voice that Hohenheim felt his a small piece of him dying. He couldn't even stop himself from hugging her. It was hard for him to give comfort to his children, not when he knew he was a monster but just this once he wanted to offer the comfort, Emma, desperately.

"I thought of the good things that came from it," he answered truthfully. "I thought of you, your brothers and especially your mother and how if things hadn't happened, I wouldn't have had any of you."

Emma stared at him for a good few seconds before hugging him even tighter as if asking him to never let her go. This was why he wanted to end his long life of immortality, Hohenheim thought as he stroked his daughter's hair. He couldn't imagine living forever while being forced to watch his children and wife die. He did not want to bury them or be forced to explain to any grandchild of his, why he wasn't growing older.

He hoped he found a way to end his long life before Trisha and the children died.

Six months later

"Where are you and Al going, Ed?" Emma asked when she heard the sound of two people tumbling down to the ground. Rubbing her eyes, the little girl sat up straight and stared at Edward and Alphonse, both of whom were yawning and rubbing their eyes as they stood up from the floor, before looking at the clock that said it was five o'clock in the morning. She felt her lips turned downwards when she felt her father's energy going further away from them alongside with their mother.

Where would her parents go so early in the morning? Running her hand through her golden hair, the blue-eyed girl fixed her eyes on her two brothers and wondered if they knew what was going on. No, her brother didn't know what was going on because Edward would have woken her up, demanding to know if she knew what was happening. Something must have come up during her father's research or one of the villagers had come to them for their father's help, either way, something was up.

"I don't want them to become a monster like me."

Those words had been haunting her mind for the past six months. Every single time Emma looked at her father, the little girl would bite her tongue to stop herself from asking her old man what he meant, not because she was afraid, but it was because she didn't want him to be sad. Instead, she would smile at her father, telling him about her time in school with Edward with the occasional input from her twin, who would exaggerate about the things happening in school. Like the tiny fight, she had gotten with one of her male classmates, who declared to her that she wasn't allowed to be smarter than him.

It had felt so good to punch him.

"Al wants to go to the bathroom," Edward explained to her.

Well if her brothers were already awake then it was better for her to get out of bed, Emma decided, kicking the bedsheets out of the way. Grabbing her hair tie from the bedside table, the blue-eyed girl followed her brother out of their room and went to the entrance of the doorway, where she knew her parents were. What was happening? She asked herself as she stood in the hallway, where her parents were too busy talking to each other to pay much notice to her.

"Don't tell them about me," her father said to her mother as he put on his jacket.

Her mother nodded her head before giving him a small frown. "You are not going to say goodbye to them?"

Father was leaving.

"Where is Father going? Why must he say goodbye to us?" Emma asked, drawing the attention of her parents towards her. Her mother blinked her eyes at the sight of her standing in front of her while her father turned his head away from her. If she was any other child, she would say Hohenheim was ignoring her but Emma was also Naruto Uzumaki and she could feel her father's emotion well.

She could feel the sadness radiating out of him.

"Emma, your father is going on an important trip," her mother said, clearing her throat.

Then why does it feel like I am never going to see him again? Emma asked herself as she stared at her father and then to her mother. She clenched her hands into a fist, noticing for the first time the small suitcase in her old man's hands and the sadness radiating in her mother's eyes. He was leaving them but why? Didn't he say to her just six months ago that their family was the best things in his life? What changed? Hadn't they been happy? She bit her lips to stop the tears threatening to flow out of her eyes.

"What is going on?" Edward asked, snapping her out of her thoughts. He stared at her and then to their parents while their little brother looked at everyone with sleepy eyes. "Why is Emmy sad?"

"I'm not sad, Ed! There is just something in my eye," Emma said, rubbing her eyes as she stared at her father, who looked at her brothers and then to her. "See, Ed! I'm fine. I am a big girl so there is nothing to worry about."

"Emma…"

"I'm fine, Ed," she insisted, keeping her eyes fixed on her father. She forced herself to smile, if not for her father's sake than for her brother's sake. "Look at me! There is no crying whatsoever. I'm not sad because a sad person wouldn't smile so which means I am happy."

Her mother stared at her, opened her mouth to say something but the little girl stared at her father. It might be a long time before she saw Hohenheim again, a long time before he sees them again and the last thing she wanted for the man, who had given her so much affection, was sadness. She might be upset he was leaving her but Emma was strong. She had been able to deal with the fact Sasuke had nearly killed her and dealt with people who gave her nothing but coldness. What was happening right now was nothing but a walk in the park for her.

Reminding herself of this fact, the little girl run towards her father and launched herself at him. Dropping his bag, Hohenheim caught her. Emma wrapped her arms around him, taking in his scent before looking straight into his golden eyes that were so much like her twin brother.

"I'm going to miss you, Father," she whispered to her father. "And you need to say goodbye to Ed and Al 'cause they won't understand what is happening. Ed and Al might think you are going to be back tomorrow while Mum and I know differently...you are not going to be back anytime soon, right?"

Hohenheim blinked his eyes, stared at her before nodding his head. "I'm not going to be back anytime soon, Emma which is why I expect you to help your mother out whenever Edward and Alphonse can't. Please do not try to climb anymore trees while I am gone."

Nodding her head, the blue-eyed girl watched as her father went to her two brothers and whispered something in their ears. She tilted her head when Edward flickered his eyes towards her and Alphonse before nodding his head at their father, who then began to speak to Alphonse. What did their father ask from Edward? And what was he saying to their youngest brother? He did know their brother probably would never remember this day, right? Hohenheim probably did know but maybe he thought in case they did recall this day that her siblings shouldn't get upset with the fact he had a talk with her.

"Bye."

Emma didn't know it at the time but she was right to think it would be a long time before her father came back, because it would be twelve years before she saw her father again.

A/N: Please review and tell me what you think about this chapter, especially between the relationships between the characters