Hey y'all. Long time no typey. But anyways I'm back…where was I? Oh yeah, Ed, Al, and Kanki… sorry It's been so long… what does transmutation mean again… no, I'm only joking. I'm (sort of) beta-reading for my BFF BlueMoonSSR. I highly recommend her stories if you're a major Skip Beat! Fan, unless you're allergic to major grammatical and spelling mistakes. Which explains why I'm beta-reading for her. Anywho, let's see how this chapter turns out.

Chapter 9

On a train in the middle of the countryside.

"I see your two and raise you seven!" Kankuro said, throwing his toothpicks in the bowl they were currently using. Ed looked at him incredulously.

"You have to be bluffing" Ed said, calling.

"Uh… fold." Al shyly showed his cards. He had a four of clubs and a nine of spades.

"Sorry, Al. Better luck next time." Winry and Hinata were watching closely, trying to understand how to play, "That was a bad hand, wasn't it?"

"Atrocious." Kankuro said, "Show 'em."

"Double Ace, double jack." Ed said cockily.

"Ha! Royal Flush!" Kankuro picked up the bowl of toothpicks and dumped them on Ed's head. "I win again, Fullmetal boy!"

Ed resembled a pincushion. He pulled the toothpicks gingerly out of his head and said, "I think you're cheating, Ninja boy."

Kankuro just gave a mischievous smile, "Whatever you say," he softened when he turned to Winry, "want to play now?"

Winry gave a small smile and said,"sure. I think I understand."

Ed, Al, Kankuro, and Winry all played this hand. Al folded after the first play (again), Ed and Kankuro lost to Winry. They continued play 'Xing Hold 'Em' and Hinata just sat quietly beside them until their train arrived in Dublith.

A strange group of people was walking into the train station. A tall, handsome, black-haired man, a wary looking woman with a red tattoo down her face and neck, a brown haired Samurai, and a kid with bright yellow hair and a bright orange jacket were standing at the ticket booth. The man behind the booth was trying to distribute four tickets among the strange crowd and make change from Greed's handful of money at the same time.

After saying goodbye to the frazzled ticket manager, Greed looked at his ticket.

"Our train doesn't get here until tonight… What the hell are we gonna do until then?"

"I think we should go bowling." Dorochet said

"YES, I LOVE BOWLING!" Naruto said excitedly.

Marta raised her eyebrow at him. "Bowling? Where is there a bowling alley around here?"

Dorochet pointed behind himself vaguely and said, "It's down the street. Why am I the only one who knows where anything is in this town? Let's go!"

Dorochet ran out of the station as the others tried to keep up.

The train slowed to a halt around mid-afternoon. Kankuro, Ed, Al, Winry, and Hinata all stood up and exited the train.

Ed and Al lead the way down the streets of Dublith to the Curtis' Shop, and they all crowded into the shop.

"Teacher," Al called to the severe Izumi, "It's so nice to see you again, teacher! This is Kankuro and this is Hinata." Al said indicating the two.

"Don't tell me… they just appeared out of nowhere around 5 hours ago." Izumi said looking weary.

"Yeah, how did you know?"

"A group with several people who randomly appeared nearly destroyed the shop a little while ago." Izumi sounded irritated.

"Really? What did they look like?" said Kankuro.

"Well there were two of those strange other-dimension people. One of them had red hair and a red tattoo on his forehead, and the other boy had bright yellow hair and an orange jacket.

Kankuro exclaimed "Gaara" at the same time Hinata said "Naruto!"

"So you know them?"

"Yes, we do," said Kankuro, "Where did they go?"

"Both groups went toward the train station."

TO BE CONTINUED