IF YOU KEEP READING, THERE'S A SIDE STORY AT THE END

Hey everybody. Hugglestheknowitall here. I'm sure many of you are probably pissed off at me right now for not writing for so long but I'm really sorry. I've had a lot of stuff to do for school and the there's Mr. Writer's Block who's taken up residence in the Code Anime part of my mind lately. I did start another story called the Golden Eyed Professor if any of you wanna look at that too.

I'm in the process of trying to type the next chapter and it'll probably be done within the next week so you don't have to wait long. All you need is love~……Sorry I'm listening to the Beatles right now. Anyway….. so I've been thinking (or rather I went to other stories and stole this idea) Other people add those survey thingies to their stories so I wanta try that.

Lately I've been reading and watching D. Gray Man (though this started about a few months ago…) and I was thinking … Would anyone want me to put D. Gray Man in here? Any other anime or manga? If you want something like that then just put a comment or something saying either yes or no or a different anime/manga….That would probably be limited to the one's I've seen… Yeah just name one and I'll tell you if I've seen it or read it….

Or what I might do is make this the type of fanfic where a new anime or manga or something will come in every few chapters. Though it probably won't happen for a few more chapters because of Neku from The World Ends With You.

Sorry my ranting's taking so long. Yeah… I know you probably just skipped past everything to read the side story or your probably just ahh screw it and walked away and then proceed to set your computer on fire for some odd reason.

Okay, here it is.

Code Anime Side Stage 1: An Unlikely Friendship

This side story takes place between prestage 2 and 3 of how Ed and Sora became such great friends.

P.S. For all of you Haruhi Suzumiya fans, think of the other guy as looking exactly like Itsuki. And trust me. It does have to do with something later in the actual story.

"I hate you so much right now."

"Likewise."

Edward and Sora sat cross-legged across from each other under the shade of a nearby tree. And if this was an anime or manga, there would be one of those effects where there's sparks between the two and fire raging around them.

"I know you did it," Ed said in an annoyed voice.

"Oh no, I insist. You did," Sora said in a polite voice.

The tree almost burned down.

Why were they playing the let's-see-how-far-our-burning-anger-can-go-until-it-burns-the-tree-down game? It all started that morning when all the food they had saved suddenly disappeared. Of course, both Sora and Edward thought the other one had done it. But since neither of them really did it, neither of them confessed and the two remained angry at each other.

Suddenly, it happened. The tree burnt to a crisp.

Apparently, Ed nor Sora had realized they were playing the game mentioned before so they stared wondering what had just happened.

"Now look what you did. You set the damn tree on fire!"

Sora kept staring. "No I didn't."

"Don't you have magic or something? Coulda done it with that," Ed said mockingly, still not believing Sora's story from the previous night.

"Hey! Are you making fun of me?"

Ed started snickering. "No, not at all."

Then Sora started yelling and Ed started yelling after that until there yells were unrecognizable. They were so busy yelling, that they didn't notice the crunch of a branch a few yards away.

A ninja with a music note headband stood on top of the branch staring at Ed and Sora.

"What did you do now?! Look over there! There's a creepy guy standing there staring at us."

"That's not my-huh?"

"Huh? Oh hello," the music note guy said. He had long lightish brown hair and light brown eyes. He was also smiling in a carefree manner.

Both the boys on the ground stared at them man in the tree. They said nothing. He said nothing. It was silent for a few minutes. Then the man pulled out a small but sharp knife.

Ed and Sora gasped. He wants to kill us!

"Sorry kids, but I'm not supposed to be seen," he said in a voice that if he hadn't been trying to kill Sora and Ed, you could've thought they were talking about the weather.

"Hehehe. So we just say we didn't see you! Okay then, bye!" Sora laughed nervously only to have the knife brush past his face. He could feel the tiny stream of blood already forming from the new cut.

The man sighed. "Sorry, but that doesn't work either."

Ed was getting really pissed off. If Ed knew what kind of guy this was, then this was the kind of guy that if you fooled around, he'd kill you in an instant, even if he seemed carefree and happy and…..He also had a look in his eyes that made it seem he knew more than he let on. And then Sora was making it worse. To Ed, Sora seemed to be the kind of guy who didn't like to fight or tried to avoid fighting. The squirrel they tried to steal food from the previous morning had attacked him and Sora and Sora wouldn't even fight back. As a result, Sora now had scratches on his arms. But now there was this guy.

Ed couldn't stand it. Sora was probably going to get them both killed with his pacifist ways.

The blood on Sora's cheek from the cut had made a stream that was dripping small drops of blood to the ground. He was still paralyzed in fear and hadn't moved.

"Hey, don't fight him. Fight me. Can't you see he really doesn't want to fight?"

The man, no teenager Ed corrected, smiled and scratched the back of his head. "Well, if you insist on dying first."

The boy ran at Edward at an alarmingly fast speed with another knife. (P.S. Yes, I know they're called kunai but right now this is kind of from Ed's POV.) Ed bent back, using his hands as support, and then did a back flip to dodge the blow.

"Impressive," the boy said still smiling. "But it doesn't look like you're a ninja. So you probably won't last long against someone who is a ninja." The boy threw another knife and Edward wasn't completely ready. He just backed up but hit a tree in the process. "Can't you just give up? I have to follow orders and kill anyone who sees me on this mission." The boy started walking towards Ed with another knife.

Ed growled. How many knives could a guy keep in his pocket? The boy had said something about ninjas. Maybe ninjas had inter-dimensional spaces for pockets. Ed sighed and clapped his hands together.

"Oh, you're religious? I'll give you sometime to pray before death." The boy said still walking towards Ed.

"Sorry, but I don't believe in God." Ed brought his flesh hand to his automail hand and transformed it into his trademark sword.

Sora had been able to move a little and turned his head to see the bright light followed by Ed's right hand changing into a metal sword and his eyes widened.

The boy, on the other hand, hadn't moved much. But he still seemed surprised. Ed rushed at the boy and swung his arm. The boy just moved his head out of the way. He didn't leave any time for Ed to retaliate and kicked the smaller boy in the stomach with his knee. He doubled over, and then fell sprawled out on the ground.

The boy turned to Sora. "Don't worry. It'll be your turn in a minute." He then turned back to Ed, bent down, and brought the knife to his neck. "Once again, sorry 'bout this."

Fear filled Ed's eyes. He was going to die. He was filled with images of Alphonse and his mother when something interrupted the boy.

"Step away from my friend." Ed lifted his head as much as he could to see Sora had finally turned around fully. The top part of his face was covered in shadow. "Did you hear me?" he said again through gritted teeth.

The boy got up and Ed could breathe again. He tried to get up but found his arms and legs wouldn't work. The boy turned to Sora. "It seems you want to fight now. I guess I'll kill you first then. It doesn't matter. I made it so your friend can't move his arms."

Friend? Ed had never thought of Sora as that. Just some childish teenager whom he had met and they were just together because there had been no one else around to help him get through this crazy forest.

"Sora, stop! This guy's too strong! Just run!" Edward yelled from his place on the ground.

But Sora didn't move. "Sorry kid, your spiky friend feels like being brave today," the boy said without even looking back at Ed.

The boy took out some spiky looking star things from his pocket. Seriously, Ed thought, how much stuff could a ninja keep in his pocket?

The boy threw the stars at Sora incredibly fast. It looked like Sora wasn't going to move. Ed shut his eyes but that's when he heard the clank of metal. He opened his eyes to see Sora holding a giant……key?Wait a minute, Ed thought. Sora said something about a keyblade. Was this it?

For the first time since meeting him, the ninja boy seemed surprised. "That's an interesting weapon."

"Firaga." Sora smirked, and the spiky haired boy Ed had thought wouldn't fight anything summoned a huge fireball and shot it at the other boy.

The boy dodged it but didn't realize that the fireball could follow him. Just as he turned around, the fireball struck and knocked the boy to the ground. The boy slowly got up while supporting himself with his knee and coughed out some black smoke. "Now I suppose I'll have to try," he said with the slightest edge of anger. The boy started making hand signs and then said something under his breath.

Ed couldn't hear what he said because suddenly there was a loud ringing in his ears.

"This is one of my own jutsus. It messes with the brain pulses and will soon kill the both of you. So just relax and face death."

Sora gritted his teeth as he struggled to raise his keyblade. "I have to apologize. But I've still got to get Riku back." He finally got the blade as high as his chest. Ed could tell he was struggling to concentrate. "Stop."

Ed couldn't remember what happened next because the next moment, there was a small light, Sora disappeared and reappeared next to the enemy boy who immediately fell to the ground unconscious.

An hour or so later……

"Ugh, did I get drunk again?"

"Oh, he woke up."

Ed watched as the boy woke up looking like he had actually gone to a party for drunk people. After the boy's eyes had opened, he looked at Ed and Sora, blinked, and then smiled. "Oh, it's just you two."

Sora smiled back. "Don't try anything."

The boy sweat dropped but said, "Don't worry. I wouldn't want another loss like that one." The boy sat up and stuck out his hand. "By the way, my name's Hikaru."

"Didn't we just fight you?" Ed asked.

"So? I can't be a gentleman? Besides, if I wasn't to accept defeat where I knew I wouldn't be able to win, I would give myself an ulcer or something," he said. "At least, that's how Sato-sensei taught me."

"Sato?"

"Yes," Hikaru smiled again but this time, it seemed, in reminiscence. "She wasn't an official ninja but she could probably have been well above the skill of that of a sanin."

"Sanin?"

"And then she also lived very close to Konoha so she could have been a leaf ninja. But still, one day as I wandered through the forest on a mission, she spotted me and I was about to kill her but she just held up her hand and used these vines to hold me against a tree. Then she asked if I wanted her to teach me instead of Orochimaru. I was about to refuse but she said if I didn't accept, she'd kill me. So I did. She taught me many things but on the day she left, Orochimaru found me and put me under some kind of jutsu to obey him. I think he was feeling generous that day since he didn't just kill me. But when you hit my head, just now, it broke the jutsu."

"Who's orochimaru?"

Hikaru laughed. "You two aren't from around here, are you?"

Ed and Sora shook their heads. "We're actually from other worlds-" Ed put his hand over Sora's mouth.

"What he meant to say was-"

"Which worlds? I've always been interested in that kind of stuff." Hikaru appeared truly intrigued as he stared at the two. His smile was replaced by a contemplating look.

"Well, I'm originally from Destiny Islands and I'm not really sure where Ed's from….."

Ed stared at Sora and Hikaru as they continued their conversation about other worlds. Are these people really sane? He thought.

"Just out of curiosity, what were those jutsus the both of you used to defeat me?"

Sora raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Jutsu? It was just some magic."

Note to self: When Sora says something that doesn't seem plausible, believe him anyway. Ed sighed. "I just used some alchemy."

Sora eyes started to sparkle. "OOOHH! Alchemy?! What's that? It sounds really cool! Can you teach me?......" And Sora continued on. "Does alchemy have to do with that metal arm?"

Ed froze and his eyes widened as looked down. "Um, kind of."

Hikaru got the idea and let it go, but Sora said, "Ed, if you ever need to tell me anything, I'm your friend. So you can tell me whenever you feel like it."

Ed looked up and a tear fell down his cheek as he looked into the same innocent yet reassuring look his younger brother had given him years ago.

"Yes, friends."

Epilogue to this chapter:

Hikaru and Ed and Sora parted ways, but not after he gave Ed and Sora one of his ninja packs in case there was ever trouble. One day, Ed decided to finally completely believe Sora and told him about his own past. And Hikaru left for the Leaf Village of Konoha to become a salesman. And he lived in peace for the rest of his life.

Authoress's Note: So, how'd ya like it? This was my first ever attempt at writing a side story to the original story. The next actual stage'll be up in a few days or so.