A\N- Sorry for taking so long to update, but I was working on how I could make this chapter more interesting. I thought it would be the right time to reveal the plot. Hope you enjoy this chapter. It's got some fight scenes in it as well as a few jokes. Please review on it, thank you.
FULL METAL SHINOBI.
CHAPTER 4-BATTLE FOR THE TRAIN
The group settled down in the comfortable seats in the train's car. Shikamaru, Al, Edward and Neji were in the same cubicle, with Al and Shikamaru facing each other on the window side, and Ed sitting next to Shikamaru and Neji next to Al. The others were sitting in the cubicle behind Neji and Alphonce. Choji had his back to Al with Lee next to him. Opposite Lee was Naruto, sitting next to Kiba, with Akamaru on his lap. Akamaru was under a Hengi to look like a suitcase, it would have caused a commotion if Akamaru was in his Dog\Wolf form.
Shikamaru was watching the clouds go past and thinking of how the train was getting its energy from. Perhaps it worked on the Alchemist's version of chakra. Who knows? He looked to right, at Edward, and asked one of the questions that was bothering him. "So why are we going to this Mustang guy to be State Alchemists? Why do you want to be State Alchemists? It sounds like a troublesome job. 'Dogs of the military' is what people call them." Shikamaru ignored the look Kiba gave him because the 'Dogs of the military' quote and waited for Edwards reply.
Edward sighed as he looked at his younger brother. "I want to get my brother his body back. I've heard that the clock the State Alchemists are given enhanced their power. Even if this isn't enough to get Al his body back, State Alchemists have access to an almost limitless supply of information. We are bound to find some clues there." At this Al quickly objected. "Nee-san mustn't worry about that. I'm going to become a state Alchemist to get your arm and leg back." "A Noble Goal. Brotherly love is so amazing. Gai-Sensei, wish you could witness the love these brothers have for each other." No one replied to Lee's comment. Instead they ignored him completely and pretended they didn't hear anything.
Neji had been thinking during the entire conversation and decided to voice her ideas. "Do you think they have anything in their archive that could return us to normal as well?" At this all the ninja, except Shikamaru, stopped what they were doing, and waited for Edwards reply. "If there is something that can restore our bodies, then I don't see why it can't restore yours as well." Neji decided to voice another of her ideas. "Is it possible to return to our own world as well, perhaps to just after we disappeared, so that no one thinks we died or anything?" To everyone's surprise, Shikamaru answered first, and dragged their spirits down to Earth with his words.
"No. I don't think it's possible to return home. If we try to go back, one of three things could have happened. 'A' is where we disappeared and no one knows where we went. That's the option you were thinking of Neji, Our universe. 'B' is where our very existence has been wiped from the world, life would continue on as if we were never born. Meaning that other ninja would have replaced as in our teams, there wouldn't have been any Survivors from the Uchiha clan, and, the village wouldn't have had our help during Orochimaru's Chunnin exam invasion. Worst case scenario, Konoha would be no more than a heap of ash and destroyed buildings."
"Option 'C' is most likely the case. A new universe was created. Meaning that two universe collided and created a third. The original two continue as if nothing has happened. In other words, in our universe, we are still there, alive. Doppelgangers. For the other universe, Ed and Al's universe, life for them would continue as if we never arrived there. The crossover universe is what I call it. And if that is true, there may be more changes than what has happened to us. Minor changes might have occurred here, and we will never know as we don't have Edward's universe to compare it too. People may be a different height; someone might take a different action to what they take in Ed's universe, etc. You two messed with reality and now we all are stuck in this Pseudo universe."
Everyone was shocked at this. Even Edward and Alphonce. Option 'C' was something they never thought of. They were distracted from their thoughts by a little girl peeking over the top of her chair and watching Al with big eyes. Alphonce waved at her and tried to convince the mother that she was not bothering him. The girl caught a glimpse of Edwards Auto-Mail arm and he showed off for a while. Eventually the girl fell asleep and the ninja and Alchemists got back to whatever they were doing.
"How's that?" Neji exclaims, lowering the cards in her hands onto the bit of unused chair they were using as a table. Edward and Alphonce couldn't believe that this small, Iris-less girl had beaten them. All three looked at Shikamaru, the only one left to reveal his hand. Shikamaru sighed and commented about how troublesome this game was, and how he wanted to go back to sleep as he lowered his hand. "After all that about how your heart wasn't in the game and yet you still won." Shikamaru opened one eye and closed it again. "Anyone see him close his eyes in the first place? That guy falls asleep quite quickly." Commented Edwards, collecting the cards and shuffling them. He looked across at the other four to see what they were doing.
"Naruto, the aim is to catch the jawbreaker in your mouth, not have it land on your head." This from an annoyed Kiba as he threw his own into the air. Akamaru, whom had left the Hengi to play this game Choji had came up with, had grabbed and swallowed it while it was still in the air. Naruto Laughed as Kiba scowled Akamaru for making him lose. Lee read the scores. "Naruto, 3. Kiba 4. I'm on 15, Akamaru 7 and Choji is leading with 32." Choji grinned as he ate another jawbreaker. "No fair, I wanted that last packet of chips Choji put up as the prize." Commented Naruto. "Hey, it's Choji right? Can we also have some chips?" Edward asked, pointing at Neji, Shikamaru and himself. Choji shook his head. "Last packet is the prize for our game."
Suddenly a man run up to the group, looked at Edward and exclaimed, "Yes, there is one. He's really small." At this Edwards face changed as he jumped into the air, moving his arms and legs faster than you could blink. "Who did you call a shorty that has to be looked at through a magnifying glass to be actually seen?" he asked as the unknown man took a step back, "No, um…" he started. "I wasn't the one who said it…" He would have continued if two sunglass wearing thugs hadn't both stood up and pointed their guns at him. The unknown man was fast enough to get his gun out in time, but was outnumbered as the man behind him knocked him out.
Shikamaru motioned to the others to stay down as the men told everyone to put their hands up. Everyone put their hands up as the patrolling men walked towards them, watching AL very carefully. "Nee-san?" "Yeah". Shikamaru listened to the brothers 'Conversation' as he slowly mad a signal with his hands. All the fingers, except the index finger, were curled up into a fist as Shikamaru waited. "Hey, you Eight." Started one of the men, when Edward pointed behind them as if he saw something. They looked behind them and turned around just in time for Edward to knee the one man in the head, while Sasuke dropped from his hiding place in the ceiling in time to take the second man out with a spinning kick. "Good thing you remembered to have someone stay hidden as the lookout, Shikamaru." Commented Kiba as they looked at the two unconscious men on the floor. "Someone had to do it, And Sasuke was the smallest and lightest." answered Shikamaru. "Even smaller than Edward?" asked a mischievous Naruto, ignoring the death stares she got from Ed.
"Hey, what are you going to do now?" asked someone in the crowd. "What if the other members come to get revenge…?" "Yes" said another voice. "If you hadn't resisted, maybe we could've have gotten to central City safely." "Yes…" "That's right…" The crowd continued to comment till Naruto shouted out, "I'll beat up the other members. You watch and See. I promise that I won't allow them to harm a single one of you." The passengers looked at this small twelve year old girl whom had just promised to protect them. They didn't know how to react in this situation. If it wasn't so serious they would have laughed.
Suddenly one of the men started to get up, and pointed his gun at the little girl from earlier. He was about to shoot her when Naruto stomped on his back so that he missed. This action showed the crowd that Naruto was serious about protecting them and they cheered instead. Edward picked up the gun. "Are you okay?" he asked. "Yes" answered the mother, holding her daughter tightly. Everyone, sitting down again, looked at the group of ninja and Alchemists, as Edward turned to the little girl. "Sorry…We'll do something about it." The girl slowly nodded her head. Tears still in her eyes from the fright she had gotten earlier. Edward looked at Al and Shikamaru. "Let's go, AL, Shikamaru."
"Okay" answered Al. Shikamaru just nodded. "Hey, you guys." Everyone looked around to see where this voice came from. They saw the unknown guy from earlier, tied up, and trying to get out from under the seat he was shoved under. As Kiba cut the rope with a Kunai, the man spoke. "I am ashamed. Who are you guys?" "We are just plain Alchemists" commented Edward. Motioning towards him and Al. "We are Konoha Ninja." Answered Shikamaru, speaking for his team. "What? Is that so? I am Farman, a Warrant officer." "A military officer? You don't look like one." Answered Edward. Farman laughed. "There is a reason I'm dressed like this. In the front car there is…" he whispered the last part so that only Ed, Al, Shikamaru and Kiba could hear. "What!" commented Edward, Surprised at this. Kiba and Shikamaru didn't really understand this as well, but compared the information they got from the man with their ninja equivalent.
"So the Culprits are after…" stated Kiba, before a look from Farman silenced him. Farman nodded. "They got so many people involved in this." Stated Edward, Standing up from his kneeling position. "Al, I will go from above with Kiba and the Wolf. You go to the bottom with Neji, Choji and this person. Naruto and Sasuke, you guys stay here. Shikamaru and Lee will go forwards inside the cars. Everyone nodded. Naruto whispered something into Sasuke's ear as the others left. Sasuke nodded.
Edward tried to balance on the top of the train and started to move forwards, when Kiba, riding Akamaru like a horse, grabbed him and pulled him onto Akamaru behind him. "AHHHHHH" shrieked Edward as Akamaru jumped onto the next car and continued forward running at full speed. Down bellow one the men heard something that sounded like a bag of chips opening (Choji's last packet). When he opened the door to check he saw a huge armored figure. "Oh, you shouldn't fire." Began Al, however, he spoke too late, as the man fired his gun and injured himself in the process. "The ricochet…" Al stopped seeing that it was too late as Neji pushed past him, jumped over the man on the floor, screaming in pain, and run towards the last man standing. Seeing that the man was about to fire, Neji activated her Byakugan and used her chakra to hit the bullets in mid air. Seeing his bullets falling uselessly to the ground the man turned around and was about to run, when Neji hit him on the head.
When the train went past a tree, Akamaru jumped over it, however Edward fell off his back and rolled backwards and nearly fell off the train. Thankfully he was caught by a man in a purple shirt. "Are you okay?" He asked. Edward nodded. "I'm surprised you came out here" he told him, as Kiba offered them his hand to climb back onto the roof. Akamaru barked a greeting. "I'm Hughes. Your Edward Elric-kun and company right?" They nodded and Kiba told Hughes his and Akamaru's names. "I've heard of you from Lieutenant Colonel Mustang. Now co-operate with me." Hughes looked at the last car and thought of an interesting idea.
Two men ran into the car where everyone was taken hostage. "Where did those two idiots go?" the one asked, seeing all the passengers (minus our group) sitting down as if nothing happened. Suddenly there was a puff of smoke as all the passengers turned into copies of Naruto. "Whaaaat?" said both of them at the same time in surprise before they were knocked unconscious. Naruto smiled and pointed to one of her clones. "Tell Sasuke he can bring the Passengers back now." "Yes boss" she answered, running into the car behind them, where Sasuke had taken the passengers so that they weren't in danger.
Edwards head poked down from the side of the engine car and stuck his tongue out before disappearing, both the guards looked at that window, not sure if they imagined it or not. "What is it?" one asked as Hughes and Kiba climbed down from the window on the opposite side. Suddenly Hughes had a knife in his hand and Kiba had a kunai in his. Hughes threw his knife through one guy's hand, and Kiba threw his Kunai through the second guy's hand. "Who are you?" screamed one holding his hand as Edward kicked him while joining Kiba and Hughes in the engine car. Suddenly the two workmen, whom were running the train, punched both criminals in the face before giving their rescuers a thumbs up.
A criminal poked his head out of the roof of the car with a rifle in his hand. He looked both directions for these mystery men whom are attacking them. "Is that a wolf on the roof?" he asked in surprise. He shook his shoulders in a 'don't know, who cares' manner before taking aim. He was about to shoot when he realized he couldn't move. His body acted by itself and threw the gun into the country to his right. Suddenly he heard someone say "Konoha whirlwind" before feeling a powerful force hit him in the side and lost consciousness. Lee and Shikamaru looked down at the sleeping man. "So much for trying to take over the train. How many people are left now?" Lee asked as he looked ahead towards the next car.
Alphonce, Choji, Shikamaru, Lee and Neji had caught up with each other, as the rear cars were now empty of enemies and had Naruto and Sasuke looking after them. They were approaching the last car and opened it when a gust of water entered, sweeping a few enemies with it. "Welcome" greeted Al, Hitting both hands together in a threatening way.
Shikamaru and Neji continued ahead and saw Edward was in a fight with a man whom also had an auto-mail arm. "Don't compare my arm to your cheep arm" he shouted shattering the guy's metal arm with his auto-mail. The man walked backwards a few steps from the shock at losing his arm, when Shikamaru stopped him with his shadow possession technique. Neji used her 64 strikes and it was over. Edward gave them a thumbs up and a grin. Alphonce and the others had arrived and returned it. "This guy was so troublesome. I would have been asleep now if it wasn't for him." Lee laughed and took Shikamaru's shoulder in his hand as he gave some speech about youth. "Really, that was quite nice." muttered Hughes, watching them through a doorway.
Sasuke came out of the train at the train station in time to see that Mustang guy Burn the main criminal with some fire technique. "Amazing" commented Edward. "I am Roy Mustang; my rank is lieutenant colonel, and I am the flame Alchemist. Remember that." Sasuke shook his head. His fireball Jutsu was ten times as powerful. He saw Edward run towards him and followed his own group. What else was he supposed to do? He had no way of Killing Itachi in this universe, so he had to return to his own universe in order to kill him. And to do that he needed the resources of a state alchemist. He had heard every word of that conversation earlier, and as long as one of them becomes a state alchemist, he can finish his goal.
"Lieutenant colonel, you put us on that train knowing about this didn't you?" Mustang looked at Edward. "We didn't know everything. By the way I have good news. The General has heard of your accomplishment. He is giving all of you special permission to take the State Alchemist exam." "You told us to take it, that's why…" Edward exclaimed, confused. "There's no way children can take that important military test, now aren't you happy I made you take that train? I've organized housing for you guys to study and for the ninja to learn alchemy." Mustang walked forward and rested his hand on Edwards shoulder. "It's your choice whether to take the exam or not." "Of cause I will. I'll…I'll take the test." he shouted at a departing Mustang. "Looks like we were playing into his hands." Comments Al, joining his brother on the train station platform. "There they are, over there" screeches a little girl waving at them and shouting thank you to them. The brothers waved back as the ninja came and joined the brothers. It seems for better or worse, their fate was tangled together. They would stay united and return to normal and achieve their goals, no matter what this bizarre new universe threw at them.
A\N- This chapter was quite long in comparison to my other chapters. Hope you enjoyed it. Next we have the Nina Arc. I don't know whether I will split Nina into two chapters like what happened in the anime, or merge it into one. Anyway, next chapter we will also have the Shinobi learning Alchemy. What type of Alchemists will they be? Will all of them learn Alchemy? Will they pass the test to become state Alchemists? Find out in the following chapters of Full Metal Shinobi. FrozenShadowWolf out.