Yay!! I thought of a new title :) It's Hogwarts Chronicles: The Alchemist, since I plan on making a story for each of the books, making a diff character the main character, in this one, you can so tell it's Ed :) I'm probably not gonna be able to make it through the entire series, but hey, a girl can dream right? ^^
I updated both stories today! I'm so proud of myself XD
Ed spun around through a pitch black world. Had he gone blind? No, he could still see his hands and his body. He heard a soft sound from behind...a whimper. Looking for the source, and hopefully an explanation, he twirled. He froze.
Ed saw a woman who had chestnut brown hair and eyes and a soft sweet smile. He saw his mother. An involuntary cry escaped his lips.
But there was something wrong. In her eyes, it was blank, lifeless...dead.
Her smile turned into a shriek. Her entire body seemed to morph and her hair became stringy and coarse. Her eyes lost what depth it had and became unfocused. He saw the thing that he had convinced Al to help him create. As Ed reluctantly watched the morphing, he couldn't move a single muscle to turn away as he watched his mother twist with pain and anger.
He felt vomit move up his throat and swallowed it back down.
A small voice whispered in his ear, "You caused this. It was your fault. If you didn't do the human transmutation, none of this would have happened. Al wouldn't be in a suit of armor. He would be a boy…a real one. You wouldn't have to join the military and be a dog of the military. You caused all those people in Lior. You caused Scar to kill the military men. You killed all those 'innocent' men. They had families too, people they cared about, people like what Al means to you..."
Ed spun around gasping. It was Shou Tucker, the man he despised as much as he hated Scar. Tucker was standing next to his chimera-fied daughter. He was a chimera too. His raspy voice made Ed have chills run down his spine. His upside down face with ears seemed to be more horrifying that he remembered.
"It's your fault I'm like this. You could make me the most adorable toys, but you couldn't even fix me," Trisha gasped out with blood spurting out of her mouth. She coughed out some more blood before her eyes closed and she stopped shuddering.
"Big brother, you couldn't save me. You didn't even try," the Nina/Alexander chimera crooned.
"I-I co-couldn't h-have done..." Ed said softly, staring in horror at the twisted chimeras shape. No matter how he tried, he couldn't tear his eyes from the chimera's hair covered eyes. They were pleading at him to play the first time he met the chimera. This time, they full of rage. Finally he managed to look away from Nina's accusing stare.
"Brother, it's your fault. You made me like this. I didn't want to do the human transmutation on mother. You made me. And you made me like this," Al accused glaring darkly. Al took a step forward and towered over Ed. "I didn't want to be in this armor. It's your fault. It's all your fault! Everything is your fault!"
"It's because of people like you that Ishbal was destroyed, you dog of the military," Scar said calmly and lethally stepping out of the shadows. His red eyes seemed to burn with hatred and fire that even Mustang couldn't compare to. His half shadow covered face made him look all the more menacing. "I'll give you a moment to say your prayers before I kill both you and your brother."
"You idiot!" Ed turned around. Perhaps this was the only sane person. It was Winry. Holding a giant wrench. "You never let me and Granny Pinako in on any of you and Al's adventures. You idiot! It's your fault that Barry the Chopper kidnapped me. It's the military's fault that my parents died! You're part of the military, so you deserve to DIE!"
There was a scratching sound behind him. Ed turned around. He saw the homunculi. Envy, Lust, and Gluttony. 3 of the Seven Deadly Sins.
"Fullmetal. So are you strong enough to make us our Philosopher's Stone?" Lust cooed as her nails lengthened and sharpened. She caressed the nails of her left hand as she said it, creating the obvious threat.
Ed choked out a barely intelligible, "Noo…" It can't be...
"What was that? A no? Well, in that case, Fullmetal Pipsqueak, prepare to die!" Envy lunged at Ed. Gluttony took a step forward, with a crazed look in his eyes.
"Hungry…hungry…HUNGRY!" Gluttony ran forward with amazing agility for one so plump and took a large bite out of Ed's left arm. Ed inhaled to let out a bloodcurdling scream.
"Argh!" Ed gasped as he woke up…sopping wet.
"Sorry mate, but you looked like you were having a fit in bed," a boy with flaming red hair apologized. Ed's brain informed him it was Ron. He had a large pitcher of water under his arm, which explained why Ed was wet to the bone. That magical pitcher was practically endless. Ron must have just turned it over on Ed.
"Nightmare?" the boy next to him, black messy hair and green eyes, asked visibly worried about one of his only friends.
Ed nodded, unable to say anything else. The dream had been too real. He missed Al.
"Might as well stay up. Breakfast starts in 15 minutes," Ron said glancing at his watch.
"You feeling better?" Harry asked.
"Yeah, loads," Ed answered as he dug himself back in bed. This day wasn't starting out very well. Plus, the bed was unusually uncomfortable, being sopping wet.
"So what is Amestris?" Ron asked, finally giving into the urge from yesterday.
"It's a place, just wait for History of Magic," Ed mumbled, finally finding a comfortable position to snuggle in.
"I think Professor Mustang said we had it tomorrow, right?" Harry said, kind of disappointed.
Ed groaned. Great. He'd have to deal with Colonel Bastard soon.
"How come you don't like him?" Harry asked. "He's a teacher at your school, right?"
"He's a bastard," Ed said. He yawned and he clapped his hands and placed it on his pillow to evaporate the water and snuggled.
"Bloody hell!" Ron exclaimed. He examined the bed sheets to find it quite dry."Is that alchemy?"
"No, it was wandless magic," Ed said sarcastically. "Of course it's alchemy."
"Jeez, cranky much?" Ron muttered as Harry laughed.
"So how come you don't like Professor Mustang? Don't say he's a bastard," Harry asked.
"Because he's a pile of shit. Good enough for you?" Ed said, falling into a light snooze again.
Ron shrugged at Harry with a look that plainly said He's bloody weird!
"I saw that," Ed muttered, an eye opened angrily.
"You might want to get up, breakfast starts soon," Ron yawned as he fastened his robe.
Ed's brow creased slightly and you could practically hear him wondering, Do I want sleep...or food...sleep...foood...
Ron stifled a snigger as Ed looked more and more confused.
"WHAT ARE YOU LAUGHING AT?"
"Nothing nothing," Ron said hastily as Naruto gave an earth-shattering snore. Ed reckoned it couldn't actually wake up Colonel Bastard...and that dude was famous for sleeping in...and then promptly getting lectured and shot at by Hawkeye.
"You better not," Ed muttered darkly.
"Sha...oooo," Naruto muttered unintelligably as he tossed over.
Ed glanced at him and stared. And stared. And stared. Naruto was wearing a walrus-resembling cap. It had the teeth, buggy eyes, everything. And strangely enough, Naruto didn't seem to mind it at all...
Maybe he traded wearing that hat for something important. After all no one in their right mind would wear that...Of course, Naruto didn't look very much in his right mind...
"Breakfast starts soon," Harry reminded him again.
Ribbit...Croak..Ribbit.
"AAAAAAGH!"
Harry spun around to look for the source of the sound of the roar, and found Gamakichi II clinging for his dear life across Naruto's face. Gamakichi II's limbs were stretched down to the last bit of stretchiness they had in them.
"GAMAKICHI!!" Naruto roared. He grabbed ahold of Gamakichi's body with his index finger and thumb and plucked him off. "That was NOT nice!"
...Croak.
Dean, Seamas, and Neville, meanwhile, were laughing. Even Trevor the other frog seemed to be croaking out laughter in his own froggy way.
The red frog Gamakichi jumped out of the way and promptly jumped on to the table besides Naruto's head. Jump, jump jump. The six boys watched curiously as Gamakichi jumped. He was enjoying the attention. He finally stopped jumping as he reached Edward's head. The only boy that ignored the waking up of Naruto. Gamakichi shifted himself so that he was nice and comfortable and extended the very tip of his tongue out of his mouth.
A little longer...
It continued to stretch...
And in an attempt to make it go out as long as it could, it hit Ed's hair making the boy jump about three feet, which is to say...more than he is tall.
"KEEP YOUR STUPID FROG UNDER YOUR CONTROL, NARUTO!" Ed yelled. He made a lunge at Gamakichi, but he was too slow. Gamakichi was smarter than he looked at least, he jumped up and out of the way, and landed on Ed's head. He immediately hopped off and used all the froggy muscles he had to jump away from Ed.
"Run...er...Jump Gama-chan, jump!" Naruto cheered.
Ed growled under his breath, threw back his blankets and leapt up to chase after Gamakichi all over the room. It would've looked quite comical had there not been Ed's clearly furious expression.
Within minutes, the room was nearly completely demolished. The white sheets that formerly were on the boy's beds were ripped off and flung across the room so it made one large pile of sheets. The red blankets were piled up in a messy pile and spread across the entire room, as a good brake for Ed; he tripped over them so many times, he felt compelled to rip them to shreds, although he went back to the more important thing: finding and possibly killing, Gamakichi. Chairs were tossed and some were even cracked, from the sudden pressure Ed gave when he landed on the chair, trying to imitate Gamakichi...and needless to say, unsuccessfully. There were drawers that were hastily opened when Ed tried to look for Gamakichi in them, before rememberng that frogs did not have opposable thumbs. Those never-ending pitches of water were knocked over, filling one of the drawers with water. Gamakichi stood there, on top of one of the clumps of sopping, soggy socks.
"I hate you," a voice muttered from through the tangle of bedsheets. Ed's face poked out of the lump and glared up at the frog.
Gamakichi blinked once, and his mouth curled up to make a smirk. All of a sudden, Ed had the weird feeling that Gamakichi must've been channeling some energy from Mustang.
Behind them, 5 red-faced boys were laughing as hard as they could. In fact, Naruto even keeled over and somehow ended up on his back, rocking up and down like an over-turned turtle.
If it wasn't for the fact that the rooms were all sound proofed, Harry was sure that the entire house would be attracted to loud...er, crashes, that Gamakichi the frog caused Edward, a human, and an alchemist at that, to make.
The Ravenclaws didn't have much better of a morning. Mostly due to Neji. Shikamaru's enthusiasm, or lack thereof, to help the other Ravenclaws didn't help much.
Neji was sitting criss cross applesauce, Indian style, agura, whichever one you prefer, on his bed. The deep blue bedspread with bronze trimmings were without a wrinkle or crease, if you don't count Neji's weight on it. And Neji was meditating. In, out, in, out. All was right...except for that.
Prod. Poke. Neji's eye twitched. Poke. His fist clenched and unclenched. He was agitated. That stupid eleven year old boy.
Poke. Neji's hand whipped from it's folded position and grabbed at the hand before the boy even saw it move. And if that wasn't enough, Neji strengthened his grip which caused the boy to yelp in pain. Neji's head turned ever slowly, a cold glare stared straight at the unfortunate boy. He whimpered again.
The boy paled until he reminded Neji of the ghosts that happened to float in this very school.
"You will not do that again, unless you wish to lose this arm and any other limbs my Kaiten happens to hit," Neji stated coolly.
"F-f-fine," the boy, Eric, he said, clearly scared.
"Don't break his arm, it'll be troublesome," Shikamaru muttered, lying on the edge of the window, looking at the clouds. Oh look, there's an angry Temari, and there's another one..and another one...maybe there'll be strong winds today...
"He's annoying," Neji hissed.
"It'll still be troublesome."
"...Lazy ass," Neji growled.
"I still bet you're blind," Eric muttered under his breath, too low for anyone except a ninja to hear...Too bad that the person he was up against was a ninja.
"What was that?" Neji said coolly, getting into the position of the Kaiten and activating his Byakugun.
"...er...Nothing?" Eric asked hopefully, a little hysteria getting into his voice.
"Neji, what do you think Hiashi would say if you managed to destroy the tower and killed a kid here? Not very good for the great Hyuuga legend, eh?" Shikamaru said, looking stern for the first time.
"Tch," Neji let go finally. But he practically threw him at the wall, his back colliding with it with a sickening crunch. Neji didn't seem the least bit satisified with this punishment and proceeded to walk out the dormitory.
Eric groaned in pain as he sat gingerly and avoided the wall touching his back like it was Neji himself. He rubbed his lower right arm, where five distinct bruises were already forming.
"Is he gone?" Terry Boot whispered timidly. He stuck his head out from his spot huddled with the other Ravenclaw boys.
"NO," Neji growled from the common room. "And Shikamaru, go talk to your girlfriend, she's stomping her way here."
"You have a girlfriend already?" one of the boys said in awe. "Who? Which one? Is it that pink-haired girl?"
"Of course it's the pink-haired girl, who else could it be? The only other girl is that scary blonde one in Slytherin. And Slytherin's don't date out of house."
"Really why not?" Shikamaru asked, not really interested.
"Because, they're a bunch of snot-nosed, spoiled brats, who'd go to Daddy for anything they need," a Ravenclaw said, with an air of distaste.
"Hm, sounds like Temari," Shikamaru said, closing his eyes, if she had a dad that didn't try to kill her oh so lovely brother.
"She's coming in...5...4...3...2...1."
"LET ME IN! OR I'LL BLOW YOU DOWN," could be heard coming from outside.
The phoenix obliged and opened the door.
"Neji, where's - Shika-kuuuun!" Temari squealed as she caught sight of Shikamaru.
"Yo."
"Shiiiikaaaa, can I please kill Sasuke? Or maybe that Cody kid?" Temari said sweetly.
"No, since I'm the only Chuunin here, I'll be blamed for everything, and that would be troublesome," Shikmaru said.
"We can blame it on Jiraiya-sensei," Temari pointed out.
Shikamaru pondered it, for a bit, and said, "No. It'd also be troublesome if they found carcasses of two students with no sign of magic. No doubt they would blame it on us, or as you say Jiraiya-sama. And if that happens, war."
"But we're already in war with Sound," Temari pointed out again. "I won't harm a hair on that Cody kid's head, happy?"
"...Yes," Shikamaru said, deciding it was too troublesome to argue with her. She always won anyway.
"Unfair bastard," Neji muttered.
A sixth year chose that time to come downstairs and see what all the racket was about. He stumbled down the navy blue stairs to find a blonde girl with four pigtails and an odd outfit that included fishnet tights at places and a dress...in other words, the new transfer SLYTHERIN, in the room. All of a sudden, his eyes widened and he became more alert.
"What is IT doing here?" he roared.
"It is down here because IT is visiting her boyfriend, you gotta problem with it?" Temari asked pointedly, glaring at the poor freaked out boy.
"But...but...Slytherins don't date out of house!" the boy stuttered, repeating the first years' words.
"Well too bad, because I do, and I won't give Shika-kun up for anything," Temari said, hugging Shikamaru's neck.
"How troublesome," Shikamaru sighed.
Neji deactivated his Byakugun and looked away while Temari was doing that, to prevent himself from keeling over and start laughing. Imagine, one of the three Sand Siblings who nearly destroyed Konoha, here, snuggling up with one of the laziest bastards in Konoha, no, ninja, history.
That would be very un-Hyuuga like. Yes it would.
Sasuke opened his red eyes, he kept his Sharingan on now (you could never know where or what Orochimaru might be planning) to see a dull gray rocky ceiling, not unlike the one at Orochimaru's lair. Both rooms were lit dully by candle light, and they just so happened to flicker so you could see every nook and cranny in the cracks of the rocks. Well, only people with Sharingan's and Byakugan's would be able to, bring the grand total to a whopping 21, where only 2 of them were at the school...not that it mattered at all, Sasuke mused silently, cursing Orochimaru for sending him here. Here with the stench of snot-nosed brats.
The stench of those snot-nosed brats was exactly what kept him at a light sleep the entire night. He was trained to the smell of ninja. So trained only to the smell of ninja blood, blood that had been spilled 100 times over, blood that thirsted for blood. Just as he thirsted for blood. The sweet, husky, smell of blood that drew to him more than any female could. The sharp tang, rusty taste that blood had washed over his tongue. He could just hear the screams of those that he killed, his katana sliding smoothly through each cut that he made, each man he killed, begging for mercy. The warm familiar feeling of the blood dripping down, thick and rich down his hand. The rich red stain it made on his shirt, on the ground, everywhere.
Snore! Sasuke clicked his tongue in annoyance as he heard that. It ruined the great moment he was having. He closed his eyes again, feeling like the Sharingan was perfect for him, blood red, spinning, and mystifying. He didn't need the Mangekyou, the regular Sharingan was enough to defeat Itachi.
Sasuke snapped his eyes opened as he felt someone's gaze upon him. It took him less than a second to figure out that it was Cody.
Cody whistled, "So Dante was serious when she said that you guys were reaallly sensitive with 6th senses and all that sorta freaky crap."
"I suggest to you that you should hurry up and go away before I kill you," Sasuke said, closing his eyes again.
"Well, I'll have to tell you that we don't die that easily," Cody smirked back.
"I know. You guys are immortal and can immediately regenerate, and that bullshit."
Cody eyes widened as he heard that and let out a bark of laughter that promptly prompted Goyle to let out an earth shattering snore.
"Woow! Dante told us all that you ninjas were good, but I didn't expect you to learn about that! Especially since none of us had gotten hurt and nobody mentioned that even once!" Cody said gleefully aware that if Sasuke had found about this, then the others would too. Of course, that would make this more interesting, how wonderful for him and Envy.
"We also know how to kill you already, and believe me, I wouldn't mind to."
"But how? Even I don't know...besides that one involving alchemy that I'm sure you can't do," Cody said, raising an eyebrow.
"Well, now I have something to hold above you."
"Fine, be like that, why don't you," Cody said, finally acting like the twelve year old he was. He stuck out his tongue for good measure. "I'll just ask Envy what the hell you're talking about."
"Hn."
Cody, who hadn't been able to understand the different meanings of Sasuke's 'Hn's', took it as a bluff and smirked as Draco woke up muttering unintelligibly.
"Goo' mornin'" Draco yawned as he muttered that. His usually gelled smooth platinum blond hair, which sometimes bore resemblance to Ino and Deidara's (who have got to be twins!) hair, was frizzy, pointing in every direction, and absolutely nothing like it was during the day.
"Hn."
"Morning!" Cody said brightly, making Sasuke and Draco wonder how the hell he got into Slytherin, especially including the fact that most Slytherins were sullen, high-class (and emo!) people.
Cody just grinned brighter, guessing correctly why Draco had such a confused look on his face. Draco just shook his head to get all those crazy thoughts of the Sorting Hat finally getting something wrong out of his mind and started putting on his robes. Sasuke glanced at the robes that were set at the foot of his bed before turning away and sniffing with annoyance. Sure they were nice and black, but really, they were even gayer than the ones he had to wear with Orochimaru...and that was saying something.
Sasuke decided not to wear hjis new disgusting new uniform and opted for the old outfit he wore when he was in cell 7 with those two blundering, weaklings that weren't fit to be called ninja in the loosest sense of the word. He had the feeling that the fool called Dumbledore wouldn't like it if he wore an outfit involving an open chest too...Sasuke smirked. How nostalgic for those two fools he used to call team mates. He subconsciously remembered that Gryffindor had a lot of similar classes with Slytherin Sasuke mused silently how long it would take before the two of them cracked and got into trouble...no, no, that wouldn't work. Shinobi did not to sink to that low of standrads. He'd much rather go with mental ones, like forcing them to remember the 'bonds' they had built as genins together, and of those bonds he broke in a single day. It made him giddy with pleasure, not that a single ounce of it overflowed on to his face and expression.
He ignored that spoiled Malfoy brat as said brat wondered aloud if he was even allowed to wear it. He obviously cared up keeping up that winning streak of that worthless House Cup or whatever it was called. Sasuke barely heard Cody say that it was only required for the students to have it as supplies, but it wasn't required to be worn.
Draco still looked a bit nervous, but shrugged it off. He proceeded down the stairs as soon as he was finished dressing and was almost immediately ambushed by a certain ugly pug named Pansy Parkinson.
"Dracooo!" Pansy exclaimed happily as she immediately latched onto Malfoy.
"Hello Pansy," Draco said, equally eager to see his friend, and soon to be girlfriend.
Sasuke strolled down the stairs, with the high aristocracy that he had, head held high and observing those weak prideful fools.
He caught sight of the Parkinson girl for the first time, and noticed how much she looked like a dog. And a bull dog at that. A breed of dog hat even the Inzuka clan wouldn't use, nor any of the other dog using clans around the Five Ninja Villages. Perfect for her. She and Malfoy were just perfect for each other.
Jealous.
Prideful.
Lazy.
Wrathful.
Greedy.
And most of all, lower than even a certain Uzumaki Naruto.
Sasuke turned to walk to the wide expanse of stone gray wall where a door occupied. The edges were adorned with slim green and silver snakes carved from the stone. He walked out the door and up the stairs to get to the Great Hall where students were already starting to trickle in. Some of the older SLytherins were already at the table, sharing answers to the homework from over the summer and gossip about the latest celebrities. Petty things that were just plain annoying.
Sasuke looked up as he smelled and more importantly, heard someone that was very familiar. He smirked. Naruto and Sakura came through the double doors with that Fullmetal kid. The two ninja had identical shocked looks as they saw Sasuke. Naruto glared slightly before turning away and chattering noisely as he pulled Sakura, who was still staring in shock at Sasuke, to the Gryffindor table. But the Fullmetal kid must've been smarter than Cody said. He noticed the glare that lasted less than a millisecond. Well, then again, he must've been a prodigy to be able to make the new record for being the youngest State Alchemist, shaving off nearly half of the previous record, at least according to Cody. And speak of the devil (almost literally!), Cody showed up.
He strut to the Slytherin table. Along the wakl, he passed the Gryffindors and gave a sadistic smile to Fullmetal. Ed tactfully ignored it and continued with inhaling his food, being careful to inhale around any white liquid substance, namely, milk.
"Fullmetal!" Wrath called out. "You haven't met my friend Sasuke yet have you?"
Ed did not react, he was much too busy with inhaling food, and trying his best to ignore Wrath...or Cody...or whatever his name was.
"I'm sure you know him, shinobi," Wrath went on. "he's told me so much about you guys. Especially you, Naruto. Like how you were his best friend."
"You don't know Sasuke-teme!" Naruto roared, attracting the attention of some others nearby. And by some, I mean everyone in the Great Hall.
Sasuke would've snorted, had he not been the Mr. Expressionless-Freak. Only Naruto could defend and insult someone in the same breath.
"He also told me how a certain five people nearly died trying to get him back to Konoha," Cody continued saying each word with a gloating tone and savoring Naruto's furious expression.
"Shut up. I might not know what the hell you guys are talking about and who the hell Sasuke is, but I do know that if Sasuke's your friend, he's my enemy. And I'll back Naruto on everything does to get him to come to his senses. Especially if it means banging his head against something like Al's armor.
Mustang grinned from his spot on the teacher's table. There was the Fullmetal Alchemist that he knew and usually hated. But nevertheless, he enjoyed having the reckless, idiotic Fullmetal back, rather than the skeptical and paranoid one. Wait...if the reckless annoying one came back...coupled with the fact that he was learning magic, that would mean pranks to no end. Mustang shivered slightly, a surprisingly not so rare occurance considering that Hawkeye was part of his squad.
"Cocky, aren't you Fullmetal," Sasuke said, for the first time.
"Well considering how strong you look, I'd have to say, I have a right to be. I can beat you with both hands tied behind my back," Ed shot back.
"Are you so sure about that?" Sasuke hissed, not being one to get riled up easily.
"I know so."
Sasuke slipped his katana out of the scabbard and moved behind Ed in quick fluid motion, faster than Ed could see. But Ed was prepared for it, and clapped his hands at about the same speed. Sasuke took less than a second's reaction time to react. The result? A Sasuke that was pushed up and back by a very odd looking piece of rock, poking out of the ground. Ed received a heavy blow in his back with a small nick on his neck. Nothing he would die from...hopefully.
Mustang snapped. A great big fire blew up. It was, to Sasuke, Naruto, Sakura, and every other ninja present, a great surprise as well. It was even bigger than the Uchiha clan's great Goukakyuu no jutsu! Sasuke 'tch'ed' appearing unimpressed and slid his katana back into the scabbard. Ed grumbled under his breath about something that sounded oddly like about a bastard colonel.
"Ed, you know better than that. Sasuke, aren't ninja supposed to be well trained and not so easily goaded? Control yourself," Mustang reprimanded, as he would with his own officers.
McGonagall pursed her lips as Mustang showed no sign whatsoever of setting a punishment.
"Mustang, is that really enough? Shouldn't there be a consequence?"
"Well, I'm sure these two don't care a rat's ass about the house points and will ignore whatever punishment they get. Well, Ed least, but feel free to do whatever you want."
"I thought militaries had low tolerance for misbehavior," McGonagall said, with a slight air or astonishment. "Well, very well, 50 points off your ouse points, each and a month of detention."
"Eh," Ed said, as he sat down and went back to his food inahling.
Sasuke looked ticked but new that Orochimaru wouldn not like it if one of the teachers 'accidentally' disappeared and if he returned without the stone. Hmm, that Fullmetal kid wasn't that bad Sasuke mused. But he still had a long way to go before he could be on par with any ninja.
Naruto, on the other hand, was being Naruto, and thus, he was absolutely gushing about the alchemy.
"It was absolutely awesome! Nearly as good as the Kage Bunshin, or, or, or, the Orioke no-!" Naruto said promptly being punched across the room by Sakura.
"YOU PERVERTED IDIOT!" Sakura roared. Fight! Fight! FIGHT! Inner cheered.
Someone squealed in fright as
"S-s-shorry, Shakuraaaa," Naruto mumbled, "Oohhh, I shee pre'y lighshhh..."
"...He's not waking up..." Neji said, being the closest to the idiot.
"...I'm thinking that that's not good...right?" Ed said, peering at the unconscious boy. Ed lifted his foot slightly behind him, his left foot mind you, and gave a skull-bashing, bone-crunching, eardrums-cracking loud kick.
Naruto rolled over so fast, he was a yellow and orange blur. A bright yellow and orange blur. Not the best color clash.
"Hey, Ed?"
"Two things. One, do you happen to have any ninja blood in you, because that was an AWESOME kick," Sakura gushed, "And two, I think you broke Naruto..."
"...I take it that's not a good thing...?"
"Well, considering the fact that Naruto's probably going to be our next Hokage, no, not really," Shikamaru said, "This is troublesome."
"Stop saying things are troublesome, Shika-kun," Temari thwacked Shikamaru with her fan, "You're really unmotivated."
"Am I in deep shit?" Ed asked, ignoring the couple-yness of Temari and Shikamaru.
"Yes, yes you are, unless you can somehow wake him up," Sakura said, trying to wake him up.
"Hmm," Ed said. Naruto gave a loud snort, "Well there we go, he's alive. Not waking up but he's alive."
"As if that's any better," Neji snorted, approaching his partners and Ed, "Although I suppose him being unconscious is better than him being awake...and loud...and annoying."
"So there, I did you guys all a favor so- Ooh look! I see some waffles!" Ed drooled slightly as he ran at full speed, which was surprisingly fast compared to the wizards' speed, not so much to the ninja, and immediately completely drenching his waffles in syrup.
"So, do we just leave him here?" Sakura asked uncertainly, prodding Naruto's head with her toe. That caused a light bump on his head.
"Yeah, it's not like anyone cares," Neji said nonchalantly, as he strolled back to his table.
Sakura also went back to her table.
And so, Naruto lay there forgotten.
"How troubleso-" THAWK.
"Shikamaru! Don't ever say the words 'How troublesome' again!" Temari scolded, whacking him with her fan case. Her very heavy fan case.
"What an annoying woman," Shikamaru muttered under his breath. Temari tactuflly pretended she didn't hear it.
THWAK.
Kind of. And another bruise on his head. Oh joy.
"Ed...I hate youuu," Naruto moaned and groaned, cradling his poor abused head in his arms.
"Oh, put a sock in it," Ed grumbled, although he was starting to feel a tiny teeny bitty guilty.
Oh wait. That was just his hunger acting up again.
"So...what's our first class?" Sakura asked a bit uncertainly, glancing around at the unfamiliar stone walls and floors.
"Charms," Shikamaru said lazily.
"...And where is that? Neji could you....where is he?" Sakura turned a 360 to look for him. And there he was! Nowhere to be seen.
"In Charms." Oh...that explained it.
"And where would that be?" Naruto asked.
"Wherever Neji happens to be."
"...And where would that be...?"
"In the Charms room."
"You're no help, you know that Shikamaru?"
"Yes, I do know that, Edward."
"How nice," Ed said sarcastically.
"Now, if I understood that conversation correctly," Naruto said, brows furrowed, "Let me get this straight...so we're lost?"
"Pretty much. Wow, maybe you knocked some sense into him," Shikamaru said, eyebrow raised.
"Well never fear! For the GREAT UZUMAKI NARUTO IS HERE!" Naruto cheered. "Now follow me! It's this way!"
"Never mind. He's lost it again." Shikamaru sighed.
"Should you tell him that it's the other way?" Sakura whispered, looking at the map that Neji to made last night. It was amazing how Neji made it so intricate, down to the last crack on the floor. What was even more miraculous was that Shikamaru had even gotten the strength to goad Neji into making it.
"Nah, let him get lost, it teaches him to follow me instead."
"How nice of you," Ed said sarcastically.
"You really like sarcasm a lot, don't you?"
"Yes, yes I do."
And so, once again, Naruto was left wandering the halls alone, and forgotten.
"You guys decided to take your time," Neji said.
"Well sorry if some of us doesn't have a Byakugun like you do," Temari countered.
"I made you guys a map, each," Neji said.
"Only because Shika-kun made you make it."
"I still made it. Oh by the way, Shikamaru, even though we've got my Byakugun and each of us has sensitive...senses, but the staircases move in case you didn't know, and the portraits talk and notice us. You're going to have to enchant the maps to make sure that they can predict or move as the stairs move. And we can just get that perverted invisiblity jutsu that Jiraiya created from him," Neji said.
"I can guarantee that in...a week. It'll take time to find the spell."
"Why do you guys need to know that?" Ed asked confused.
"We tend to explore the castle and the surroundings, ah, outside of regular hours, if you know what I mean," Temari smirked.
"And what the hell is a Biakugen?"
"Byakugun, you just butchered the finest of all kekkei genkai of the Village Hidden in the Leaves." Neji spat.
"So...again, what is it?"
"It's a kekkei genkai."
"You guys must reaaally like being vague about stuff," Ed said.
"Perhaps it's because we don't want you to know. A ninja relies on their secrets to win. Nobody flaunts their powers."
Just then, two Narutos popped in, made a strange handsign, and poofed into smoke.
"...What was that...?" Ed asked, kind of scared of what was going. Really! It wasn't even remotely following the rules of equavalent exchange.
"Let me rephrase me earlier sentence. No ninja flaunts their powers, besides Naruto, who is a ginormous idiot," Sakura sighed. "That's the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu, it makes clones, and whenever he dispells one of them, all the knowledge it gained is transferred back to him."
Moments later, Naruto arrived jumped into the room.
"THE GREAT UZUMAKI NARUTO IS HERE!"
"It's Naruto Uzumaki, idiot."
"Do you not know my name?????!!!?" Naruto exclaimed. "It's Uzumaki, as in whirlpool, and Naruto, as in fish paste."
"I know, I know, but they reverse their names here," Shikamaru said, as Ed roared out with laughter at the second part of Naruto's name.
"OOOOOOhhh. So then, ....uhh, I got it. THE GREAT OTURAN IKAMUZU IS HERE!"
"............"
"Whaat?"
"They just reverse the order of the names, not the letters." Shikamaru said.
"Oh."
"Yeah, oh," Temari rolled her eyes.
"Can I try again?"
"No." Neji said.
"Bu-"
"No."
"Bu-"
"No. AND SHUT UP," Neji said, a vein popping.
"Fine, be like that, but remember, I'm stronger than you! I beat you in the Chuunin exaaaams!" Naruto sang.
Neji's eye twitched and Shikamaru had to use his Kagemane to stop Neji from attacking Naruto.
"You're just jealous. I'm not surprised," Naruto said, pretending to be haughty. Ed noticed the other students backing away slowly and decided that it was safest to do that.
Shikamaru sighed and hung his head, causing Neji to do the same.
"Oi, lazy boy, I have to do it too!" Neji growled to his chest.
"Don't talk like Shikamaru like that!" Temari tapped Neji with her fan...quite hard actually.
"Ow!" Neji and Shikamaru exclaimed at the same time.
"You know I have to feel what he does too!" Shikamaru exclaimed angrily. In a lazy manner. Somehow. He always did manage to do the impossible.
"Yes," Temari said blankly, as if that was the most obvious thing in the world.
"Hey, Sakura?" Hermione asked hesitantly.
"Hm?"
"Is it okay if Temari nearly kills Shikamaru like that?"
"Oh of course! You should see back home, where we won't get in that much trouble if we break something...ah, a couple of somethings," Sakura said cheerfully.
"..."
"I'm scaring you aren't I?"
"Kinda," Hermione admitted.
"Oh, well sorry," Sakura said sheepishly.
"Ha ha, Shikamaru! You totally got your ass kicked by a girl!" Naruto laughed.
"Settle down now kids," a squeakly little voice declared from under the podium.
"AAAHHH! The podium is haunted!" Naruto yelped, losing his footing and falling back.
"Baka," Neji muttered under his breath.
"I resent that! I'm not a ghost! I'm your teacher, Filius Flitwick," a small man walked out from behind the podium.
He grabbed a stack of books off his stool and disappeared behind the podium again. In a couple minutes where you could hear dull and soft thunks, he popped up above the podium, just barely reaching the top. The class sweatdropped as they realized what their teacher was doing: stacking books behind the podium so he could see the class.
"Before I start anything, I'd like to call roll," Flitwick squeaked out. "Mandy Brocklehurst..."
Shikamaru stared lazily out the window. Ahh, how he wished to be outside doing nothing more than lying on the soft, cool grass and stare into the sky and at the clouds. Those puffy white clouds that were much nicer than Temari ever was and would never hit him the way that Temari does.
"Eep!" Flitwick squeaked as he got to Ed's name.
"...did you just squeak...?" Ed asked.
"You're Hohenheim's son!"
"I know that. And I really wish I wasn't, that bastard," Ed muttered.
Sakura looked downcast for a second. Sasuke had taught her how much it hurt not having parents. There was nobody to scold you, but nobody to hug you and comfort you. That might have been one reason why Sasuke had left, he desperately wanted someone that cared for him, even if it was just to use him. But nevertheless, Ed shouldn't act like that, even if he did hate his father. They still were blood and they still cared for each other.
Flitwick continued with the roll call.
"So, Charms is about, as the name implies, charming something. This year, we will learn various things, including levitating, during the earlier months, and even to as we go along the years, we will be learning more difficult charms, including Banishing. Today, we will begin with a few simple wand movements..."
"Well that was a useless class," Naruto yawned as they walked out of the class room. Shikamaru and Neji went the other way to get to their
"Naruto!" Sakura scolded, "It's just because we're all beginners at magic. Once we really get into it, we'll be able to learn amazing charms and such. I can't wait until we learn some medical spells. I'll be able to heal you guys up using only a fraction of the regular amount of chakra!"
Shikamaru sighed. If Sakura got too attatched to this school, that would mean trouble. Especially when you factor in the fact that she had inherited Tsunade's super strength.
"So...is she always this energetic..?" Ed asked. He couldn't believe anyone could be this energetic about learning. He had unfortunately developed a hate for learning after a year with Izumi, and her death trainings. Ed shivered.
"Yeah, it scares me sometimes," Naruto shivered, recovering from a blow that Sakura gave him.
"Jiraiya-sama is teaching our next class," Sakura muttered, somewhat dejectedly.
"Jiraiya!" Temari scowled. "Last time, the only time he'll ever get, he went to Suna, I had to forcefully shove him out the girl's baths. Gaara naerly killed him after. Apparently he has as much tolerance about peeping toms as Tsunade does. Too bad for Jiraiya both of them are so strong. Although, it might be becasue Tsunade's fist can penetrate his sand, that he did that."
"Really?" Sakura asked astounded. She remembered when Sasuke went through the wall of sand, but that was with a hand full of chakra. "Tsunade-sama is amazing!"
"Who is? This Sunadeisama" Harry said, finally asking. Sakura was mentioning this person all day, and curiousity finally got the better of him.
Sakura frowned as she heard Harry's butchered version of Tsunade's name.
"Not Sunadeisama, it's Tsunade," she said slowly, as if talking to a toddler, "-sama is just a honorific meaning someone of a higher rank. She's the most wonderfulest person in the world! She's the top medic nin in the Hidden Villages, and I'm her apprentice."
"Well, to me she's just old Baa-san," Naruto said. Sakura's eyes narrowed and gave Naruto a loud punch in the jaw.
"Don't talk about her like that!"
"I call Jiraiya Ero-sennin too!" Naruto stuck his tongue out of his sore mouth, "He doesn't care."
"Of course I care!" Jiraiya roared from the doorway. "Haven't I told you a thousand times not to call me that?"
"...I don't seem to remember," Naruto said, a small smirk dancing on his lip. It was so small not even Jiraiya noticed it.
"Baka!" Jiraiya growled.
Naruto folded his arms and blew a raspberry at Jiraiya.
"Kami, the things I do for Tsunade," Jiraiya muttered under his breath, rubbing his temples. He muttered much quieter "I need to talk to you after class." under the chucklings of the shinobi.
Even Naruto understood that he shouldn't just shout out anything about it.
The blaring bell rang signaling the tardy bell and Jiraiya glanced at the roll to make sure no one was late.
"So, your first Defense Against the Dark Arts. You must all be excited, huh?" Jiraiya said cheerily with a clap of his hands. "Well, as my apprentice Naruto would know, my lessons aren't easy at all. They'll be hard, and I'll be teaching differently than the previous teachers. As a ninja, we strive to keep ourselves physically fit, unlike you wizards and witches. This is because your magic is the raw form of our chakra. If you are physically and learn how to mix your will and your magic together, you can quite possibly be able to make your spells much stronger than if you just input magic," Jiraiya said.
Sakura acted as if this wasn't new to her at all, in which case it wasn't. For Naruto however...
"NANI!" Naruto exclaimed.
"Shut up!" Jiraiya yelled. He had a very long night last night. It was bad enough that all the bathrooms in the school all had charms on them so that no one of the opposite gender could go in. What was worse was that said charm forcefully shoved anyone who wrongly entered out of each of the bathrooms by using some weird force of wind, that was weaker than Temari's but still, nevertheless, strong. He found out, after looking through each of the bathrooms on each of the floors, by the way, there were exactly 79 girls bathrooms, the only one that allowed males was the one with Moaning Myrtle in it. And needless to say, Jiraiya was desparate, but not that desperate. Nobody was.
And so, needless to say, he was cranky.
"So you're making us exercise...?" Ron asked in horror. He had heard of these stories of those Muggles having to exercise and having to take physical education as a requirement in school, but he wasn't a Muggle! He shouldn't be forced to go through this!
"Yes, that's what I'm saying!" Jiraiya said in a serious manner. One of the few times he ever was. "You're lucky. You're starting from your first year unlike the other years especially the seventh years. They'll have to start exercising after at least seven years of not caring how physically fit they are."
"Bu-bu-but..." an especially whiny Hufflepuffian, Daniel, well, whined.
"I do not tolerate laziness. I am the teacher here, if you don't want to learn, fine by me, but if you end up dying because your shielding charm wasn't strong enough, or because your disarming charm hadn't had enough power in it, don't blame me," Jiraiya said coldly. "If you don't like the way I'm teaching, why don't you just leave."
Daniel whimpered a bit before falling silent.
"That's what I thought, anyone else, if you think you're too good for my class, go right along and leave the classroom," Jiraiya said.
"All right!" Naruto cheered, and made a move to leave, but Sakura grabbed the neck of his jacket.
"Don't be an idiot!"
"But it's just exercising! We got enough of that in the Academy!" Naruto pouted.
"...Naruto?" Jiraiya asked in a sneaky manner, "Remember the last time you didn't listen to me?"
Naruto paled, shut his mouth up, and sat back into his seat. It made all the other students wonder what the hell Jiraiya's teaching methods were.
"So, since many of you haven't been exercising in quite a while, we'll start it slow," Jiraiya cheerily, having no sign that he was furious minutes ago. No, seconds ago.
"We'll start with a single lap around the Quidditch field and 20 push-ups, and after that, 20 sit-ups. Considering how slow most of you will be, that should take about an hour. For the rest of the period, we'll be starting out with some simple spells used to defend yourself," Jiraiya said.
When nobody except the ninja moved, he roared, "Well? What are you waiting for, go on! Sakura, Naruto, help out the other students if they need help. When you're done, run 100 laps, do 200 push-ups and 300 sit-ups."
The wizards and witches gaped at that number and silently thanked God that they didn't have to do that much. They filed out the door, expecting the ninja to lead them to the who-knows-where Quidditch Field, but only the pink-haired girl stayed with them. A couple girls squealed in fright as they saw the blond, Naruto was it?, jump out the window. Harry raised his eyebrows. Surely, like those ninja movies, they would be able to fly or something of that sort. But alas, no, Naruto just fell down and with a soft thud landed in the grass. Hermione gasped in fright as she leaned over the window to see how badly mangled Naruto was.
But...there was no body...Hermione looked around the bottom, and gasped when she saw Naruto up and running toward what she supposed was the Quidditch Field.
"Bloody hell!" Ron exclaimed as he looked at the direction Hermione was looking at. "How do you think he managed that?"
Jiraiya looked up from the paper he was scrawling some weird figures on, "Why are you still here? Hurry up and get them out of here so I can go back to, er, work."
"Hai, Jiraiya," Sakura said grudgingly, "Isn't this supposed to be your class?"
"I'm a novelist! I have to keep up with my books!" Jiraiya snapped.
Sakura grumbled something incoherant under her breath and said aloud, "I'll make sure Tsunade-sama knows about what you're doing here."
The effect was instantaneous. Jiaiya shoved the paper out of his hands and into his desk made some weird sign and disappeared, leaving no sign, except for some dust clouds.
"He Apparated!" Ron exclaimed.
"ALL RIGHT IF YOU'RE NOT COMING WITH ME, I'M LEAVING YOU HERE," Sakura roared, ticked off at Jiraiya. She also happened to inherit Tsunade's extremely short temper. And when you've got super strength and a short temper, you tend to get what you want. And so, the first Defense Against the Dark Arts class went off to a great start.
"So what is it that you wanted to tell us, Jiraiya?" Sakura asked anxiously. She didn't want to be late to Transfiguration. It seemed like one of the most interesting classes out of all of them. Plus, she was very annoyed at Jiraiya.
"I told Tsunade-sama about Sasuke being here and that Cody kid Neji told me about. Shikamaru and I thought about it last night, and we figured if Sasuke is on such good terms with Cody, then Orochimaru's bound to have some allies. Considering how well of a chance this is to get Sasuke back, Tsunade has agreed to send some more ninja over. But Naruto, we have to make getting it the top priority. We need it desperately, and we need it soon." Jiraiya said.
Naruto understood how much the village needed the Stone, and nodded solemnly, although against his will.
"Gaara is willing to leave Baki in charge, as he feels he still owes Naruto a debt. Kankuro returned from his mission yesterday, and will be coming too. Well..he hasn't agreed, but Gaara said he'd make Kankurou come..." Jiraiya broke off nervously.
Sakura and Naruto didn't blame him. Gaara could be scary as hell when he wanted. Heck, he could be scarier then hell.
"Anyway, Shino will be coming, and Lee, too," Jiraiya sighed, clearly disturbed, "Tsunade's taking a gamble here, sending six of our top ninjas here, plus the Sand siblings, and plus myself but she herself, knowing how bad her luck is, it was worth the risk. So I'm saying this now, and I'm not trying to make this sound dramatic, but the future of Konoha could depend on you."
Naruto grinned and said, with the good guy pose,"Leave it to us Jiraiya-sensei!"
"That's exactly what I'm afraid of..." Jiraiya muttered, rubbing his temples as he watched Naruto and Sakura walk out the door, where Ed was waiting for those two.
Call me paranoid, but there's something fishy going on here, why would two alchemists come here, and I know for a fact that there is now Alchemy Academy, and why would Mustang be here all of a sudden...he's definitely not a professor if they did found an Alchemy Academy, Jiraiya thought, eyes narrowing.
"So, why was your teacher talking to you?" Ed asked curiously.
"Oh, well Tsunade-sama, something like our principal, is sending some more students here. She was being lazy, so they needed some papers cleared up first," Naruto lying smoothly.
Sakura nodded in agreement, filing this information in her mind so that she could tell Neji and Shikamaru later. Like Shikamaru would say, it would be troublesome if their stories were different.
"Gaara and Kankuro are coming. They're Temari's brothers and I think both are crazy. Gaara is psychopatic and used to kill everyone that he didn't like, which was quite a lot..." Naruto said thoughtfully...kind of, and continued with a cheery voice that Ed thought should never be used with a conversation like this, "And Kankuro...is just Kankuro, who's a nutjob. He wears black in the desert, how can he not die from that!"
Ed decided that it was best not to tell Naruto, who was continuing his rant, that black can help someone not get burnt to a crisp, as he learned after spending so long in the Ishballan area, which was all desert.
"Shino is all buggy, like literally! I think he'd kill me if I told you, and I would much rather not like to die from bugs, and Lee is also a nutjob! He keeps yellng and cheering about Youth and has these think catepillar eyebrows! I nicknamed him Fuzzy Brows, in honor of those brows," Naruto said, grinning quite proudly for some reason.
"Naruto!" Sakura scolded. Although she did agree slightly, it still wasn't nice! "Don't listen to him Ed. Well...Gaara is a bit of a psycho, but he changed and is trying not to."
Ed wisely decided to pretend not to have heard the 'trying.'
"And Kankuro, is a bit odd, and really weird I guess...but still, he's a strong fighter. Shino is buggy. Like really buggy," Sakura shivered, and caught Ed's raised eyebrow, "What? A girl can be creeped out by bugs. Anyway, Lee...Lee's weird. He's wears green spancdex and he's really obsessed with training. Like really obsessed with it. Even a near death experience didn't stop him from running right into a fight that he probably would lose. But he's still very strong."
Ed raised an eyebrow as Sakura continued, "And his teacher, Maito Gai, is like a giant adult version of him! Only with bigger eyebrows! They're practically alive! He's the self-proclaimed eternal rival to another of our teachers, Hatake Kakashi."
"He sure sounds...interesting," Ed said hesitantly.
"You never want to meet him, trust me," Sakura advised.
"I figured," he replied and continued on their journey to Tranfiguration. Ed felt his throat tighten as he nervously approached the door.
There was a cat on the woody desk, with books that looked too old to be able to still be readable with a couple papers sticking out here and there as bookmarks, but that was it. No teacher, no nothing. Ed noticed Neji muttering something to Sakura under his breath. Sakura gasped and glanced at the cat quickly and muttered something back, excitedly.
Ed sighed as two boys rushed in, very loudly. They sighed in relief as they realized that the teacher was even later than they were...but there she was. McGonagall had leapt off the desk and transformed into a human. Ed watched as the hair on her face receded and paws became hands and feet. Whiskers were sucked back into her face as her limbs grew out again. Ed was forceably reminded of a chimera at that instant...And of Nina.
Ed shook his head. The two occurances were totally different. For one, McGonagall's transformation was totally her choice, she wasn't forced to like Nina, or Martel, or any of the other chimeras he happened to meet. And two, there was no pain. Absolutely none, it was all magic. Plus, chimeras couldn't transform back and forth between their human shape and their animal forms, not even complete chimeras. And finally, it was meant to happen. It was no fluke of alchemy or research toward making real chimeras. It was perfectly safe once you perfected the art of Anamagi. And even if something wrong happened, a simple wave of a wand or a single potion was all that you needed to turn right back into a human and ready for your next attempt.
...So why did it still feel so wrong?
But Ed never let a single emotion show through that mask he called a face. He clenched his jaw as McGonagall reprimanded the boys for being so late.
The boys, Harry and Ron, looked sheepish as they took their seats. Ed continued to copy the information on the board regarding the safety rules in the classroom other meaningless stuff.
"Now, Transfiguration is some of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn at Hogwarts. Anyone messing around in my class will leave and not come back. You have been warned," McGonagall said sternly. She glanced in Ed's way. "Elric, Mustang told me about alchemy and one of it's taboo's, if you feel like you do not want to participate in our activities, please do tell me."
Ed nodded, unable to speak. She continued, "However, you must be able to pass the end of the year assessments in order to get to the next year, but if it becomes too much, I'm sure Dumbledore will allow you to drop the class."
She turned away from the class and turned the desk into a pig and back again, as demonstration for the rest of the class. Ed subconsciously gripped the edge of his desk. Neji noticed it and made a note in his mind.
"Anybody else notice something different with Edward Elric?" Shikamaru asked.
"Besides the fact that he has metal limbs?" Naruto asked, stuffing his face at dinner.
"Yes, besides the fact that he has metal limbs," Shikamaru said, rolling his eyes. They were sitting at the same table, the Ravenclaw one, and were ignoring the stares that the two Gryffindors got. And especially the stares that Temari got, being a Slytherin.
"You noticed too?" Neji asked. "He seemed quite jumpy during Transfiguration. He got terrified when McGonagall-san transformed into a human again."
"Who wouldn't be scared!? She was a freaking cat for kami's sake!" Naruto exclaimed, taking a short break from his eating.
"Just because you didn't notice doesn't mean nobody else noticed," Neji said indifferently, "She still had the same magic as she did before the transformation."
"Neji, be nicer to Naruto. I didn't know until you told me," Sakura scolded.
"Ha! Listen to her Neji!" Naruto cheered.
"Guys, stop fighting and listen for a second could you?" Shikamaru sighed. "Mendokuse."
"SHUT UP AND LISTEN TO HIM!" Temari yelled.
The three ninja shut up and immediately turned to Shikamaru.
"The reason why he was so jumpy is obvious. He's an alchemist," Shikmaru said simply.
"We're not geniuses like you, Shikamaru. What do you mean when you say that explains everything?" Sakura asked.
"I mean that he's an alchemist from Amestris," Shikamaru stated. When he still got blank stares in return, he sighed and said, "Alchemists of Amestris, which are real alchemists, not those fake ones here, follow equivalent exchange. Also, when McGonagall-san was referring to a taboo, she meant that creating chimears are illegal. Don't say anything Naruto. Chimeras are any creature that has more than one set of DNA. So naturally, he panicked. He must have seen the result of a chimera."
"And you got all this information...out of just one class...?" Naruto asked, bewildered.
"Just because you don't use your brain, doesn't mean nobody else does," Shikamaru said, using Neji's earlier expression.
"Oh right! I just remembered," Sakura said suddenly, "Jiraiya-sama said, after class, that Gaara, Kankuro, Shino, and Lee were coming."
Neji groaned. He thought he could be away from the Youth loving freak for a year. "Why'd Lady Hokage send him here?"
"Honestly, I think that she would've wanted to send Gai-sensei here, but since he couldn't pass as anything remotely related to this school, she decided to send the little one, hopefully silencing Gai," Sakura said, a bit amused.
"...I think I'll take Lee instead of Gai," Neji muttered, stabbing his chicken with unusual venom.
The shinobi wisely decided not to mention Gai or Lee anymore.
"Our next order of business," Shikamaru said, "is, about the Philosopher's Stone. I've been thinking, Ed and Cody have to be related somehow. Cody called Ed 'Fullmetal' which is Ed's military name. Plus, Cody is a homunculus, which is a being made out of alchemy. Ed knows alchemy. Amestris is the place to learn alchemy, so Cody must come from Amestris."
"Has anyone ever told you you're a genius, Shikamaru?" Naruto gaped.
"Yes, I've been told many times."
"Well you're a genius!" Naruto said, ignoring Shikamaru's statement.
"I know. Anyway, if Cody is teamed up with Sasuke after the Stone, and someone else from Amestris is also here, then Ed and Mustang must be looking for the Stone."
"After one day, you figured this much out?" Temari exclaimed, so proud of her boyfriend.
"It's obvious." Shikamaru stated, eating his first bite of food for dinner.
"Only for you," Naruto muttered, "I still don't get it!"