Summary: (Fullmetal Alchemist/ Naruto crossover) Ed and Al tried to resurrect their Mother but something went wrong. Not only did they fail, their bodies paying the price, but they are no longer in Amestris. They are in a world where all the natural rules aren't always obeyed...

Thanks to all the people who've reviewed, added this fic to their favourites and alerts. And also thanks to my beta-reader, Krows Scared, for going over this and adding the last paragraph in the Tsunade and Kakashi scene. :)


Fullmetal Ninja

By Dark Ice Dragon

Dreams


Tsunade looked up from the documents she was signing as a knock sounded on her office door. Calling permission for whoever it was to enter she continued to watch as the door opened almost immediately, revealing Kakashi who sauntered over to the desk, hands in pockets before straightening up and tilting his head slightly in respect.

"Lady Hokage, you sent for me?" Kakashi asked, his visible eye only half open and bored looking. Anyone who didn't know the Jounin would be yelling at him to wake up and show more respect but Tsunade knew it was only a façade. He still looked tired, but had convinced her that he was fit and well enough to be back on duty the day after she had healed him.

The Hokage frowned, trying to remember just how long ago it had been since she'd summoned him. The specifics were uncertain due to a sudden influx of missions – or was that because she'd ignored them whilst she was in the hospital? She couldn't think.

"Kakashi, yes." She placed the pen back in its holder, secretly pleased at the distraction and picked up the report she'd put to one side earlier, glancing over its contents again. "You and your team were in Wave Country just over two months ago," she stated not looking up from the report.

She saw him nod thoughtfully. "Yes, it was an interesting mission. Is Tazuna requesting our assistance again?" Interesting, he says. Tsunade almost laughed out loud ruefully at that comment. At the end of the battle, after … -she checked the name again- Haku made the ultimate sacrifice, Kakashi and his team had somehow convinced Zabuza, a dangerous missing-nin of the Hidden Mist village and hired to kill Tazuna, to not fight them but to fight Gatou, his employer, instead. Even with all the injuries Zabuza sustained from his battle with Kakashi, he was still able to get past all the bodyguards and hired muscle to kill Gatou. No longlasting injuries were reported in Kakashi's team, a fact which Tsunade didn't quite believe. Definitely a different kind of mission from the norm.

Tsunade glanced up from the report. "Other than Zabuza and Haku, did you meet or see any other ninja?"

Kakashi tilted his head up in thought. "Two brothers – called themselves the Demon Brothers."

"Hmm." She had known that from the report and if it had been any other Jounin she may have suspected that further information had been ommited from the report or they hadn't been paying close enough attention to their surroundings. However, this was Hatake Kakashi; former ANBU and student of the Fourth. With the type of mission it was, to not notice other ninja and make note of it would very likely end with death. Wave Country didn't have a Hidden Village so the presence of ninja there would have been suspicious without anything else happening at the time, and there would have been no cause to omit any information in the report anyway.

Placing the report back on the desk, Tsunade carefully considered her words. "I'm sure you felt that chakra signature to the south yesterday – nothing has been found to explain it; where it came from or where it went." Tsunade intertwined her fingers and rested her chin on them. "However, the five ANBU I sent to the scene found two civilian boys there. From what I've been able to ascertain, they're from Wave Country."

"So you think they were victims of a kidnapping," Kakashi concluded.

Tsunade snorted and shook her head. "I don't know; they don't know either. They act like civilians but they have a physical characteristic that's usual more for ninja, as well as both of them being able to perform a jutsu that I've never seen before. With no hand seals."

"No hand seals," Kakashi started, eye widening. "So it's a bloodline limit." He was watching her carefully now with his visible eye, casual attitude gone. His body language mostly unreadable even to Tsunade, who wasn't surprised. Bloodline limits were the only things that the Sharingan couldn't copy and with no hand seals, it reduced the time of activation making it even more dangerous. That alone would make a ninja wary of someone with a bloodline limit but with the troubles Kakashi and his team had had with Haku, it would make anyone more cautious.

"The strange thing is, I don't think they know how dangerous a bloodline limit can be," Tsunade mused. "The way they were acting when I saw them use it, it must have been the first time it had surfaced and they didn't fear it or try to hide it." She paused. "It means that they know about their bloodline limit, were told about it and what it can do but they have no ninja training which doesn't make any sense." Had the community they live in been accepting of the difference between them and their family? Maybe they didn't know that being able to do that was associated with ninja or even that people like ninja existed. Or one or both their parents were missing-nin but never told the boys they were, but instead told them what abilities they could possibly inherit in the future.

"You want me to see if I recognise them," Kakashi stated reaching one hand behind him.

Tsunade nodded. From what little she knew about those two, it was very likely that they were from one of the surrounding islands rather than the main. Even though there was little chance of Kakashi recognising the two, she still had to be sure.

"And no reading that perverted trash that Jiraya writes around them either," she yelled standing up suddenly and slamming both hands on her desk hard enough to crack the wood. Kakashi quickly backed away several steps before disappearing in a cloud of smoke. Shizune stuck her head in through the door clutching Ton-ton to her chest and sighed as she took in the sight of Konoha's Hokage spitting like a cat and standing over yet another broken desk.

xXx

Al dreamed.

"Class, I want you to work out these sums I've written up on the board," Miss Bartul said, book open in front of her and pointing to the blackboard, chalk still in hand.

His eyes flicked up to the blackboard for a few seconds and then bowed his head again. Ed didn't even bother doing that and kept working on their calculations – or he hadn't heard what she'd said, too engrossed in what he was doing. Quickly jotting down the answers on another page, Al looked over his equations and workings. Compared to what they were being 'taught' in class right then (something they'd learned to do by themselves a long time ago) this was a lot more complicated. But they'd be able to do it, he just knew it.

"Ed! Al! Pay attention!"

oOo

Ed looked over his shoulder, grinning back at him as they ran down the road full pelt. They stopped beside a rock at the side of the road which was nearly as tall as they were, their usual marker for the finish line. For them it was usually an even chance who could win but today, he won by a large margin because of what Ed was carrying in his arms.

Flopping down on the cool grass, they waited for their breathing to even out and for their hearts to slow down. Taking in big gulping breaths and grinning at the same time wasn't exactly easy but they still did it - they couldn't help it.

The minutes stretched out, even after everything had gone back to normal. The soft, cool breeze caressed his warm skin and the quiet sound of the tall grass moving was soothing; the sun vanished behind a cloud at that moment but there wasn't enough cloud cover for that to last long. Not that he minded either way.

Ed turned around so that he was now lying on his stomach and facing towards him. "What do you think Mum'll think when we show her what we can do now?" he asked, the grin still on his face and his cheeks still flushed pink.

"She'll be surprised," he guessed. They had stayed up late that night, reading and translating some more of Father's journals. While they weren't able to understand what was being said at the time, after a few hours sleep and some more hours spent thinking about it (during school hours, but Mum didn't have to know that) they were able to figure it out. They had the theory down and now all they had to do was practice.

"Yup." With a huff of air, Ed scrambled to his feet and picked up the basket of apples he'd been carrying. "Race you home!" Before he'd finished the challenge, Ed was already sprinting away, laughing.

"Hey!" Al scrambled to his feet and pelted after his brother. "No fair!"

Even with Ed's head start, he was still able to catch up by the time they reached their front door.

"I won! Mum, we're – Mum? Mum!"

oOo

"Al!"

He tore his eyes away from his predicament and stretched out a hand for Ed. Both knew doing that wouldn't help them in the slightest but they still tried, exertion and fear coursing through them.

He was suddenly stumbling forward and nearly fell to his knees. 'What-?' Where was he? It was an open place; all white with nothing in it. Or almost nothing, he amended when he turned around to see a dark… something that looked like it was made of stone and several times his size. There was a tree engraved on its surface and it simply floated there – as far as he could see, there wasn't anything holding it up.

-'Hey.'-

Definitely almost nothing as he turned to see the person who spoke. It took a few seconds as he was turning around, to realise that he hadn't actually heard the word spoken but rather, it had echoed in his mind.

"What – um. Hello." A humanoid figure sat on the ground a few feet away, but that was all he could tell – other than the aura around it, it was completely blank. Featureless like a mannequin.

-'Ah, a polite one,'- the being said happily. -'Polite in one way but not in another,'- it said cryptically.

What did that mean? As far as he was aware of, he was always polite. Who had he offended? And what did he do to offend them? "Who are you?" he asked. He didn't want to talk to whatever it was without knowing its (?) name or just calling it 'you'.

-'That, is an interesting question,'- it said, nodding. -'I'm what you humans refer to as the world. Also known as the "universe" or "God" or "True Knowledge" or "all" or "one".'-

'But then, that would mean –'

-'And…'-

A hand was raised and pointed at him. -'I'm you!'-

'That doesn't make any sense!'

There was a large, slow ominous creak behind him. Since the only other thing in this space was that stone tablet, it could only be that making the noise. Why did it sound like it was a creaky old door opening?

'Welcome, fool.'

He froze at the voice, echoing much more than the first, being much deeper and making his very bones vibrate. He unfroze when something –so cold!- wound around his legs like a second skin. Black. It was pure black and… looked like it had a hand on one end. Then another twisted quickly around his other leg and even though it was impossible, nothing was there to help it do that. It moved like a snake and of its own volition.

His thoughts were disrupted when those black things just yanked his feet from under him. For a split second, he thought his back was going to impact with the ground painfully but he didn't. More of those things had wound unnoticed around his upper body and 'restrained' him. He'd been trying to get out of their grasp from the start but it wasn't any use; they were far too quick despite his desperate struggles.

They weren't just supporting him he realised – they were pulling him backwards. Pulling him towards the door.

The being said one more thing before the doors closed. -'I'll show you True Knowledge.'-

Al wanted to yell out, scream as what felt like thousands and thousands of bits and pieces of information were unceremoniously shoved into his brain. He instinctively grabbed at one of the arms, Teacher's lessons ingrained, and pulled, not knowing why he was doing it.

It loosened its grip on him as did the others. He found himself with his back pressed up to that door. But he wasn't in that white place anymore; this place was all black but for a tiny sliver of light coming through the small opening. He was not going to stare at that gigantic eye hovering right in front of him.

His right hand spasmed and he looked down – a thin red light which disappeared off into the dark void was connected to it. Pulling at his hand he felt the light somehow pull taut. There was a feeling of familiarity to it… Ed?

Somehow knowing that wherever he went, Ed would follow him through the connection, he squeezed his way through the crack.

oOo

Al twitched as he woke up, disorientated by the white walls for a few seconds before remembering he was in a hospital. He knew he'd been dreaming but he couldn't remember what about. He had a vague recollection of his Mother but that was about it.

All thoughts of elusive dreams left him as he realised there was someone standing by the window.


Not too pleased with this chapter. Especially the last dream. (pokes ending) But you finally find out there was a proper reason for what's happened! Jeez, it was this that sparked off this entire crossover too. D: Booo. It somehow made sense when I was begining to type this out all those months ago (snerk) but actually getting it down was just... And I think I may have changed the 'revolving door' bit and just made it 'new door'. That's was basically the idea - the Gate of Truth wasn't just a doorway (animé spoiler edit) but it acted more like a revolving door so you could get out at a different place.

Yeah, would you believe me if I said that I actually started writing this fic last April and have only gotten to the seventh chapter? Told ya I'm a slow writer.

I wanted to put the dreams in italics but since over half of it is dreams, that'd be a bit of an eyesore. The dreams aren't in chronological order and since they're from Al's point of view, it's a bit weird to refer to yourself as your name so it's just 'he' instead.

For some reason, I can't see my regular scene breaker. I can see the dream ones but... (grumble grumble) I bet it's only my computer where this shows. But if it isn't, I guess I'll be using xXx now for scene breaks. Which is reminding me of the movie. Bleh.

The next update should be on the second of April. Should be, because I've got and essay and a report to hand in the following week of the next update and I haven't completed the seventh chapter yet so it might be late again.