A/N: This is an updated version because I have decided that I didn't really like the last two chapters. This chapter is very similar to the first one that I posted, but there are some differences from the original chapter 11. I just want to thank everyone that reviewed the last two chapters.

What is the difference between Amestris Alchemy and Xing Alchemy? Emma asked herself as she read the Alchemy book, which she borrowed from the clan's library. Would it be possible for the two alchemies to be combined? Was Xing Alchemy better suited for her seals? If she could find a way to make the three work then, in theory, she would be unstoppable. However, it depended on how hard it would be for her to master the Xing Alchemy. If it was very similar to sealing then it might not be difficult for her. Despite being reborn as Emma Elric, she still knew and practised her sealing arts.

She licked her lips and pulled out an orange pen from her pencil case. Not tearing her eyes from the book, the blond-haired girl grabbed her bright orange notebook and flipped it open. The first thing she noted down was the belief of the Xing people. These people seemed to hold the belief that there was a flow of life energy within the earth, which flowed from the tops of the mountain to the land. The description of their belief almost reminded her of how Iruka-sensei used to describe chakra to her, except for the fact that chakra was just a form of life energy. In this sense, Xing Alchemy could not bring the dead back to life. However, she could not jump to conclusions. It was not scientific of her until she found more proof.

Her train of thought was interrupted when she heard someone knocked on her door.

"Can I come in?"

Emma felt her shoulder stiffened when she heard Huang's smooth voice. Could she deny him the right of entry? It should be within her right to tell him that he should never even try to knock on her door. However, Ling's annoyed face flashed through her mind and the blond-haired girl pinched her nose. He would annoy her if he found out she denied his brother's entry. For all his silliness, Ling had eyes and ears everywhere. It would not surprise her if the servants working here were spying on her.

"Come in."

Huang slid the door open, peaking his head through the gap before sliding his whole body inside. The young girl shut her two books, placed them in the bedside drawer before focusing her attention on the boy, who hurt her in her past life. Huang showed no emotions as he fixed his milky black eyes on her.

How could he feel so impassive? She felt like she wanted to throttle him for all the things that he did to her.

"Why are you here, Huang?"

The black-haired boy faltered at her question but held his head high as he answered. "Do you still know how to make those silence seals?"

It might have been years since they last made contact, but Emma still knew her teammate. For him to ask her if she knew how to make silence seals meant that he wanted to make sure their conversation was not going to be overheard by the servants or even members of his clan. It seemed like she was not wrong to presume there were spies everywhere. Taking a deep breath, the girl pulled out her orange notebook and tore the last four page of the book. She quickly scribbled the characters needed for the silence seal before placing them in the four corners of her room.

"What is so important that you want me to keep our conversation quiet?"

"We need to have a talk and I don't want any of my siblings to know about our conversation," Huang replied. He flickered his eyes to the window, where the gardener seemed to be taking his time in cutting the flowers, before fixing his milky eyes on her. It seemed strange that despite his blindness that Huang still seemed to have some inking for when someone seemed interested to know about their conversation. "After all we need to have this conversation if we want things to run smoothly."

Emma could only thin her lips at Huang's words. Did he really believe she wanted to have a conversation with him? Maybe if he saw her five years ago when her mother was still alive, then she would be overjoyed to talk to him. When she had been chronically four years old and had the mind of a twenty-one-year-old, she would still have the ability to smile at him. She might even shed tears at that time because she thought they could be together. Then again, she had been so silly at the time. She did not understand until her mother died that no one deserved to be treated the way she had been treated. Only an idiot would deny how toxic their relationship had been.

She could not afford to be an idiot when she still had two brothers to worry about.

"If you want us to have a conversation then don't bother because I have no desire to talk to you." Emma kept her voice calm even if her heart was screaming at her to tear him apart. "I think I made it clear to you that I don't want to talk to you ever again. I don't want to see your face again because frankly, I can't forget about what you put me through in the last three years of my previous life. If it wasn't for the fact that your brother is paying me good money to protect him and your clan's interesting books then I would quit my job."

If it was not for the fact she wanted to confirm her theory that the dead could not come back to life then Emma would have left on the very first day. Huang might not be completely Sasuke but he was still Sasuke. No matter how many times she tried to tell herself this, she could not help but recall every bad thing he did to her. He reminded her of Naruto's stupidity. How could she love someone who never put her first? How could she love someone who tried to kill her? His actions tore her apart. She could never call herself a strong woman because she allowed her emotions to dictate her actions.

"As Sasuke Uchiha, I put you through a lot of grief." Huang took in a deep breath. "I killed you even though you loved me with all your heart, but can you look me in the eye and say that we always had bad times as Naruto and Sasuke."

Emma stared at Huang's earnest eyes. Despite the milkiness in his eyes, she could still see the hints of the old Sasuke. The Sasuke, before the massacre. The boy who acknowledged her when everyone else hated her. He had been the first person to eat ramen with her. He had been her first kiss and her first friend as Naruto Uzumaki. He had been the boy, who made her want to be stronger. He used to be the kid that always needed to be saved from the fangirls since rudeness never seemed to work for them. She felt her heart clenched as more memories of their happy times flooded into her mind.

Her heart broke into a million pieces as she recalled the night he left her.

Despite their closeness, Sasuke could gather the courage to tell Sakura goodbye but not her. Not the girl who had always tried to be there for him.

"You are a bastard, you know that? You have to remind me that I can't hate you." Emma took in a deep breath to control the whirlpool of emotions flooding through her body. "I can't hate you because you were everything to me when I was Naruto Uzumaki. You were the first kid to accept me for who I am. When everyone made fun about my tomboyish behaviour, you never cared about it. You acknowledged me and no matter what you did to me, I couldn't hate you."

Huang looked at her with those unnerving eyes and for someone who was blind, he wasn't afraid of making her doubt herself. Did she really hate him? She spent so many years loving him that it was hard for her to despise him. Fury was so different from hate. Hate meant she felt like he humiliated her when the reality was, she humiliated herself by allowing herself to think that their relationship could be anything but toxic.

She was also too tired to hate him because there was a benefit from her relationship with Sasuke. He might have caused her pain but he allowed her to see what kind of relationship she didn't want for her siblings. He made her stronger by making her focus on training. He might have insulted her but there had been times when he tried to help her train.

There might have been bad memories but Huang wasn't wrong to say that they had some happy times.

"You are right we had some good times but you treated me like I was shit." Emma reminded him. "But you aren't here to bring up about our past lives' relationship. What is actually bothering you, Sasuke?"

"Your behaviour, Naruto."

"I have been acting like my normal self around you and your brother." Emma straightened her back. "Just because I'm not insulting the both of you doesn't mean I am acting weird. It just means that I have matured since I know I must be in my best behaviour when I am around two princes."

Huang arched his eyebrow. "You are still a terrible liar, Naruto. You might have learnt to keep your tongue under control but you haven't learned to hide your anger at me from the public. If it was not for the fact that Ling is still a carefree boy then he would be trying to figure out why you hate me so much."

"You are overthinking things, Sasuke."

"If you want to continue with your trips to the library then you should go back to playing the girl that could never get angry with people." Huang traced the head of his cane. "Ling is putting up with your behaviour because he finds you interesting, but it will be a matter of time before he gets fed up with your behaviour. I don't want to see you kick out of the compound because you can't forget what I did to you."

The blond-haired girl could only stare at the older boy. How many times did she use to struggle for him to show some form of emotions to her? Sasuke Uchiha was always afraid to show some emotion but Huang seemed ready to plead with her. If it was not for the fact that she was on the bed, she might have fainted from the emotions that he was willing to show her.

"After all this time, you still give a shit about me?"

"I was a shitty friend to you but it didn't mean that I never stopped caring for you," Emma could only stare at her former best friend. "I might have wanted the power to revenge my family but I also used to dream of having a family. When I was Sasuke Uchiha, I dreamt of having a family with you. If things hadn't gone to hell, if Itachi never murdered my parents then I would have been working in Konoha Military Police Force or ANBU. We would have been married with three brats that had your eyes. As Sasuke Uchiha, I spent most of my life loving you."

And I you, Emma thought bitterly. It seemed like she was not the only one to think that they could have married each other. Naruto Uzumaki might never have thought about love but a part of her still wanted to have that normal life. Her previous self had believed that only Sasuke was the only one she loved. She never imagined having kids with him, though. However, Sasuke had thoughts of what their kids might have looked like.

He might have loved her but it seemed not enough to leave his path of vengeance.

"Do you really think we would have been married to each other?"

Huang leaned against his cane. "I would like to think that as Sasuke and Naruto, we would have been married to each other. You were the first and last girl that I had deep feelings for. You were the first girl who didn't give a shit about my family, which is why I liked you. You were strong, beautiful and not annoying…so you were the only girl that I would have been willing to marry."

Beautiful? Emma curled her lips into a bitter smile. As Sasuke, he never complimented her when it came to her looks. It was fine when she was Naruto, but now as Emma, she knew it was wrong for a potential love interest never to praise the person they love. Sure, her teammate had been scarred by his past, but it never meant she didn't want some compliment.

"You know we had terrible reasons for making our relationship work," Emma swallowed the lump, which formed inside her throat. "You were going to pick me because I was convenient, not because you actually loved me. I would have picked you because I wouldn't know any better since Naruto never knew what real love looks like."

"And you know now what real love looks like?"

Emma chewed on her bottom lip at Huang's question. Did she know what real love looks like? Her second parents loved each other but her second father never came back home from his journey. Her mother laid on her deathbed, waiting for her husband to come back home to her. Was that true love? Waiting for a man that seemed intent to stay away from his family. Yet she could still recall how her second mother would try and get her second father to dance to the radio. She could still remember the love which radiated between them.

There had to be a good reason for her father to leave them alone.

"I think I have a better picture of what it should be."

"What are you doing? You should be guarding me."

Ling folded his arms and pouted when he saw that Emma did not seem bothered to look up from her book. His bodyguard seemed to be highly engrossed in her book since she gave no indication she heard him. Instead, the girl flipped through another page, eyebrows knitted together as she consumed the book like it was her lifeline. He glanced at Lan Fan, who folded her arms and glared at her fellow bodyguard.

"I think it is obvious that I'm reading a book." Emma finally answered. "And I know for a fact that your brothers are not stupid enough to attack you in your home. Unless you want to inform me that your stepmothers are raising idiots, which I doubt is the case since the future Emperor shouldn't be an idiot."

The guards chuckled at Emma's comment and Ling felt his lips twitched downwards at the girl's blunt comment. Why wasn't Emma like the others? Most girls would be happy he was showering them with attention, but his bodyguard didn't seem to care one bit. Instead, the whiskered girl seemed more focus on her books than with him. It should please him that she was a professional but it still felt weird to know she was not utterly charmed by him.

Lan Fan enjoyed his attention even though she spent most of her life guarding him.

"I don't understand why you seemed more interested with a book than with me," Ling complained. "Most girls will be pleased that a prince is showing some attention to them."

"Most girls wear dresses, play dolls and act ladylike but I'm none of these things, so don't jump to the generalization that I am the same as those girls." Emma flipped to the next page of her book. "When I read a book then I'm learning something different, which is interesting. If I just focus all my attention on you then I will just watch in horror and amazement that even a prince can eat like a pig. Now since I don't want to ruin my perception of princes, I will go for the first one."

"You know that I am paying you, right?"

The blond-haired girl bobbed her head but made no indication to show that she cared about the implication. If his mother was here then she would be yelling at Emma for being so rude to him. The woman would tell her to get out since she was not doing her job properly. He should tell her to get out but the whiskered girl was interesting. Sometimes she acted like the perfect employee while other times, she acted like she gave no shit about his status in Xing.

What was she reading? Ling could not help but asked himself. He put down the chopsticks, which earned several confused looks from his servants and guards. Lan Fan looked at him with concern but he could only shake his head. He took a deep breath as he made his way to his foreign bodyguard, who seemed to be highly engrossed in her book. With a smile playing on his lips, he grabbed his bodyguard's book and looked at the title.

"Give me back my book?"

"Why are you reading a book about Xing's alchemy?" Ling tilted his head and skimmed at the page that his bodyguard had been reading. Resurrection? Why was the girl interested in such a dark thing? He closed the book and stared closely at his fuming bodyguard. "Why were you reading about resurrection?"

"I wasn't reading about resurrection." she snatched the book from his hand. Emma slipped the book into her orange backpack before staring him right in the eye. Her blue eyes shone with honesty when she said, "I was reading about how your country's alchemy works, but it seemed like this author dedicated a whole chapter to it."

Ling couldn't help but feel like that there was more to his bodyguard's words.

"There is a legend that there was a power to bring the dead back to life," Ling commented, watching his bodyguard's reaction carefully. The girl stiffened but made no comment about the legend. He walked towards the dining table, picked up the apple and twirled it around. "They say that the power could bring anyone back to life but it is a silly legend."

"All legends are based on some truth," Emma replied, giving him a blank look. "However I presume that the power would have a gave consequence…maybe they bring back the dead but the user would die from using it. To bring back the dead would mean to sacrifice your soul for it, even then there is no guarantee that they would be the same person."

"You seem to have given a lot of thought about it."

"When you lose one of the most important people in your life then you have a lot of time to think about these things." Emma flickered her eyes to the window, where Huang seemed to be taking his stroll with their grandmother. Ling frowned when he saw the resignation and sadness in your eyes. "You will try to think of all the ways you could bring them back and if they were murdered then you would find ways to destroy the people who wronged you."

"Who did you lose?"

"My mother died when I was five," Ling blinked his eyes at the girl's admission. Emma smiled at him but the sadness seemed to be radiating through her eyes. For a moment, he wondered if the girl would be willing to cry in front of him. He would if he lost his mother, even if the woman showered him with attention because there seemed to be a chance for him to be an Emperor. "She meant the world to me and she was taken so soon. No one could heal her from her sickness."

"I am s…"

Emma waved him off. "If you are going to apologize then don't even bother. It might hurt me to remember my mum but I have memories of her, which is more than some people can say. Some people have it worse than me so I'm grateful that most of my memories of her were filled with happiness."

Huang.

His older brother might be one of the smartest people he knew, but their mother hated him. Their mother kept humiliating his brother just because of his disability. Their mother never gave him a hug since she saw him as a curse. Ling wondered if his brother would cry if their mother died, or would he smile in relief. Unlike him, there was no love between his older brother and their mother.

"It doesn't mean you don't feel hurt about her death."

"If you are trying to comfort me then please don't do it, Ling." Emma looked up at the ceiling. "My mother wanted me to live my life to the fullest. She never liked seeing me sad, which is why I won't allow myself to be consumed in my grief. I have seen what happens to people when they allow themselves to be consumed by their sorrow and hatred…I can't let myself become like these people."

"If you truly believe that then why were you interested in the resurrection part?"

"The dead should never come back to life," Emma touched her butterfly hairclip. "But I know that there are some people who want to bring the dead back to life…I wanted to see if your people were also foolish enough to do this. I wanted to know if there was a consequence to their actions but I will reassure you that I will never bring a dead person back to life."

"No matter how much pain a person feels for their deceased loved one being gone, they should always remember that the resurrected loved ones aren't really the same people that they loved."

Ling could only watch as his bodyguard leave the dining room with her head held high. He should yell at her and tell her that he didn't dismiss her, but he could not bring himself to do it. For all his grandmother's talk, he knew when to leave a person alone in their grief and Emma seemed like she wanted to be by herself.

He wondered if Emma truly believed in her words or if she was trying to fool herself.

Q: Would Sasuke and Naruto will be together?

A: No because Emma will never allow herself to make the same mistake. She might see some changes in Sasuke but she will never allow herself to take such a big risk.

Q: Are you going to continue this?

A: Yes.

A/N: Please review and tell me what you think about this chapter. Please tell me about what you like and dislike about this chapter as well as any improvements that I can make.