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...

Don't think I have much to say here (don't worry, I'm going to be making up for this hugely in the post-chapter author's note). Though, could someone have told me that I had a double line in the last chapter? I didn't know that was there until yesterday morning.

Anyways, thanks to all the people who read, reviewed, faved, put this on story alert, and/or added this to their C2. And, obviously, thanks to my beta-reader Krows Scared.


Fullmetal Ninja

By Dark Ice Dragon

Breath of Fresh Air


Ed looked up when he heard the now familiar sound of the door sliding open. He glanced at the clock; their plates had been collected a little while ago and a nurse, not Hokage, probably wasn't due to check on them for at least another half-hour. A few seconds later, Naruto poked his head around the door warily.

Ed wasn't surprised at this since the doctor yesterday had thrown both Naruto and his brother out soon after Naruto's brother had landed on Al bringing the siblings' fight to an abrupt end; Al wasn't hurt, save for a few tender areas and bruises, nothing worse. Ed and Al didn't see them again for the rest of the day, even after the doctor had left. Ed had wondered about their absence but other more pressing issues soon pushed the thought to the back of his mind and since neither of the two boys appeared again, he didn't think about it.

Seeing no-one else in the room, Naruto came in with a grin. He started talking quickly; so quickly in fact that he didn't seem to be taking a breath. Walking towards Ed, he snagged the wheelchair, which stood forgotten in a corner from the previous day, and stopped when he reached the beds. Leaning on the handlebars, Naruto's grin somehow widened even further and he said one word as he pointed to the door.

Out. And by the way Naruto was grinning, Ed had a feeling that he hadn't been told to or he'd been specifically told to not take them out. Ed grinned back at him. Beside him, he heard a half-laugh, half-sigh. Turning to look at his brother, Ed saw Al softly shaking his head but Ed could also see the small smile on his lips. Straightening up, Al looked between the two in well-practiced exasperation.

Naruto was still waiting for an answer – but not patiently because he was no longer leaning on the handlebars and was instead, bouncing on the balls of his feet. He didn't seem to notice Al's look.

Without a word, Ed slid off the bed and into the wheelchair, Al following on foot after him. While he was glad that they were getting out again, Ed felt that he and Al were being used a little bit as revenge against the doctor. Leaving the room wasn't going to cause any harm apart from worrying the staff, and he and Al were getting bored with nothing to do apart from staring at the walls. They couldn't read any books, couldn't study, couldn't leave the room without supervision, or talk to people; it was beginning to drive them nuts.

They walked around for a while, Naruto helping to expand their vocabulary in the usual way and giving a tour of the hospital at the same time. The hospital was huge, with wide corridors and large windows overlooking more of the city. Not that he could see that much from his 'chair. There weren't as many people in the corridors this time around but that was hopefully a good thing, meaning patients didn't need the doctors as much. While they were moving, Ed still noticed the looks people around them were throwing their way; most were of the same mixture they'd received yesterday in the canteen, though not as concentrated.

Why did a lot of people here seem to hate or fear Naruto? There didn't seem to be a reason for it; Naruto was likeable enough – maybe they didn't like his swearing? But that didn't make sense because someone swearing shouldn't make people fear you. Ed huffed. He and Al were probably never going to work it out since Naruto knew about it and didn't want to talk about it or ignored it. Maybe he couldn't talk about it because he couldn't explain it in gestures and the handful of words that he and Al knew so that it made sense. Maybe. Hmm... He didn't seem bothered about it though.

Ed yelped and jumped in surprise when Naruto suddenly shouted, "Oi!" and then a word that he didn't recognise but seemed to have lots of e's in it. It was like he'd yelled right in his ear! Everyone turned to look at them and then almost instantly turned away when they saw who it was, all except one person. He had crutches wedged under his arms and stood waving at them awkwardly. The unknown word must have been his name then. Ed took in the other boy's appearance and nearly choked. He wore a very fitted, like a second skin almost, all in one suit in a somewhat garish bright green. How did he get into that? The material didn't look anything like what Ed had seen back home. As a belt, the boy was using the silver band like Ino had been; they couldn't keep calling them 'headbands' if they were being worn as belts as well. The cloth was red, unlike the others' blue; did the colour have a significance? The boy was also wearing some sort of really thick bright orange socks. Al elbowed him in the arm to stop him staring openly.

The other boy smiled at them. "Hello, Naruto." Naruto's grin came back full force.

Seeing his curious look to him and his brother, Naruto introduced them with a practiced wave of his hand. "Ed. Al. Geki-mayu."

Ed and Al waved; Geki-mayu bowed. They started to walk again, Naruto and Geki-mayu chattering away at speed, Naruto sometimes waving his hands exaggeratedly and Geki-mayu nodding. Ed wondered as they moved; Geki-mayu was obviously a patient here –he didn't have that much grace with the crutches for him to have been using them all that long- but he was wearing different clothes from what he and Al were, so that meant he'd at least been here just a little longer than they had or someone had brought him his clothes. What had happened to their clothes anyway? The deconstruction of their limbs –Ed hastily shoved the imagery away- shouldn't have affected their clothing. Apart from the amount of blood they would have inevitably lost after the deconstruction had finished, Ed thought with a grimace, they'd most likely had to be cut out of them and were in the trash, cut to ribbons. Which led to the question of how they had been found so quickly – the body could drain itself of blood in minutes under the right conditions, and in his and Al's case, they had both had more than just a small cut.

Doing this wasn't helping, he berated himself with a shake of his head. Asking questions was good, but only if there was at least some way to get the answers. At this point, all they could do was observe and ask extremely simple questions and get extremely simple answers back. They wouldn't be able to learn what they wanted until they got much better at this language. But they knew that already. Why did he keep on asking the same questions over and over again?

"What's wrong?" Al asked softly, his eyebrows drawn in worry. They seemed to be asking each other that a lot recently, Ed thought wryly.

Ed sighed and shifted about in his chair. It wasn't made to be slouched in easily he grumbled to himself in annoyance. He gave up and leaned an elbow on the armrest instead. "Nothing new – just the same old questions with some new ones."

"Ah."

Naruto slowed to a stop and after an awkward conversation with Geki-mayu, the other boy shook his head with a smile and hobbled to the large slide-doors on their left and opened one.

Wow. The buildings looked even larger when there was no glass in the way and closer up. The cool breeze that hit them when the doors were opened was also a relief after being in a stuffy room for so long. Ed leaned forward in the chair to see better as Naruto pushed him forward into the fresh air. It was a pretty large courtyard with an expanse of grass all around and for some reason a line of logs had been set up sticking half way out of the ground over in one corner. As a backdrop there were buildings like the ones he and Al had seen from their window towering over the far wall. Only these looked taller than in their room; it must have been because they were at a lower perspective now. Also, from this angle, Ed could see a lot clearer that they were right about the buildings not being made completely out of brick but the platforms that stuck out randomly of the buildings were made out of wood. Weird. Why had they been built like that? They looked a lot different from the regular cube-like structures that they were used to. Al made similar noises of wonder beside him.

The four of them wandered slowly over to the line of logs. Ed wondered at the logs poking up through the grass; each one was covered in dents, had bark missing, chips knocked out and/or several odd holes. The wall behind was similarly punctured. So, they'd been used as target practice? In a hospital? Weren't the doctors and nurses worried that their patients would hurt themselves in another way? Or were they for the staff? But if they were, patients wouldn't be able to access them as easily as they had.

Naruto pushed the wheelchair so that he was next to the log closest to the corner while Geki-mayu stood in front of one, two logs down. Geki-mayu then declared something to Naruto, a determined look in his eye before he started to punch the log over and over again.

Was he allowed to do that? Ed wondered. He guessed that he was, since the logs were there in the first place but was he supposed to do that if he still needed crutches? Depending on the injury, if he was still recovering, then doing that would make the injuries worse. Except in others, it would help the person to heal faster. Ed winced as a particularly loud 'crack' split the air. If he hit any harder, he was going to break the bones in his hand!

"No!" Al had realised the same thing. "No – um..." Yeah, they really needed to learn a lot more words than the handful they knew. Ed mimed punching the air in front of him. Al nodded in confirmation.

Naruto actually snickered while Geki-mayu smiled at them. The two of them pointed to the silver headbands, saying something. So they were right, it did hold some sort of status – but what? If Geki-mayu was training to keep physically fit even while recovering from an injury, then maybe it was some sort of military thing. Or... he just wanted to keep fit. Not everything they thought mildly weird was going to have an equally strange explanation, Ed reminded himself.

"Lee!" Geki-mayu's eyes lit up at the sound of the new voice. Was that his nickname? It was kinda interesting that it was more familiar sounding than the rest of what he and Al had heard during their stay here. Or maybe there was someone around here or a whole place that spoke a similar language to them? Geki-mayu said something back (Ed assumed it was the other person's name) before continuing at a fast pace, leaving Ed to wonder where the person's name ended and where the rest of the sentence started.

Ed turned to look at the newcomers and again found himself staring. Walking towards them was an exact copy of Geki-mayu (or was it the other way around?) together with two other people. As they neared, Ed was able to see that Geki-mayu's twin wasn't exactly the same; this new guy was taller and wearing a thick green sleeveless jacket. Bleh, Ed hoped he'd never end up looking that much like his father.

The two with him were a girl and a boy; both looked older than Ed and Al. The girl had dark hair scraped back into a couple of rather silly looking balls on top of her head and the silver band was on her forehead, but her hair covered what colour the cloth was. Her clothes weren't that different, though they were still a little exotic – and it was pink. The other boy... Ed sighed and scrubbed at his face. He looked like he had cataracts, but Ino had been able to see when she didn't have pupils and this guy was similar, if with even lighter eyes. Again, there was no white walking cane in his hand. He had also noticed Ed and Al's staring almost straight away.

"What?" he said, glaring.

Naruto was glancing between the two groups, a concentrated look on his face and then groaned. He said something that made the other group look at him in surprise before looking at Ed and Al in confusion, or anger in the non-blind boy's case. He demanded something but Naruto intervened with a phrase that Ed was quickly recognising as 'They don't speak our language'. He added something that maybe sounded like it had Ino's name in it and then the boy's anger lowered, and he nodded curtly, though his eyes still reflected annoyance.

So seeming blind but actually being able to see was normal here. It wasn't sex-linked either, though they really should have known that since it was a girl that they had seen it in first. Or maybe it'd been around a while, if this was the second generation or later.

Ed's head snapped to the right, eyes wide with disbelief. A little distance away, leaning on the wall next to the other group was an entirely jet-black humanoid. It was like seeing the invert of the being at that door. He heard a muffled gasp next to him, letting him know that Al had seen it too. Why weren't – why weren't they even moving?! Couldn't they see it? If they just turned their head a little bit, it'd be right in front of them!

'No,' Ed realised with shock, 'they couldn't see it.' All of them had seen his and Al's reaction and were looking curiously at the spot where the being was but they didn't so much as blink and then looked away.

As soon as Ed came to this realisation the being disappeared. He laughed, unable to help himself. They were stuck on another planet, unable to speak or read the local language, missing a limb each so they couldn't travel anywhere without help, and now they were being haunted by one of the things that had brought them here in the first place! Oh, this was just great. In between the hysteria and laughter, Ed registered Al leaning heavily on his wheelchair, taking in quick shallow breaths. As the laughter petered out into giggles, Ed straightened and hugged his brother.

Those beings were just doing it for kicks, or maybe just the one was. They'd seen them twice now and nothing good or bad had happened either time. Maybe it was only the white one that could send people to other places. Or something. He filed the idea away for further consideration when he was feeling a little less giddy.

Ed tensed when something came too close for comfort. It was Geki-mayu's father, half-squatting in front of them, frowning a little. He murmured something soothingly, holding up a hand. When Ed and Al relaxed, he slowly brushed some of Ed's hair away from his face and put his palm there, taking his temperature. A few seconds pause then he did the same with Al. He straightened up and asked Naruto something. A short conversation later and both were looking serious. Moments later Ed and Al were moving back towards the hospital building being pushed by Naruto and the others remained by the logs.

Well, at least they'd gotten some fresh air, Ed thought as they passed back through the doors.


Absolute 'love' of commas and semi-colons in this chapter. Erk.

I'm starting to think that I'm going just a tiny bit overboard with how much' Ed brings up the noticing how everyone looks at Naturo' thing. But if he can't work anything out, then he'd probably keep on going at it, says my beta-reader. This should be the last time it's brought up for a while.

Thanks to Lucathia Rykatu for correcting me on Lee's nickname - I thought that it was Geji mayu. Hopefully this'll be the extent of the Japanese appearing in this fic, apart from jutsu, when they appear. I'd originally had Naruto correcting himself but then thought that he wouldn't so there might a few 'Lee's floating about when they should be 'Geki-mayu'. Ugh, it just seems to slow the whole sentence for me though.

(rolls eyes) So many questions in this chapter.

Do they have lifts in the hospital?

'Sex-linked' is the actual term for a gene only expressing itself in males. It doesn't mean that a woman doesn't have that gene, but if she does have that gene, then she'll be a carrier, and won't have the disease or whatever that a man would have if they (the man) had the gene. If the woman then has a child with someone who has the gene, there's a chance that their kid, male or female, could then have the disorder/disease. If the woman has the gene in both of her chromosomes, then she'll have the disease (thanks to sadfulness, for pointing this out for me). I'd go into a lengthy tangent about it but you've seen how long this author's note is haven't you? Any questions about this, just ask.

Eh, my exams are going to be at the end of the month. Fun. On the other hand, I'm pretty confident for getting an all right mark in Language and Thinking. We had the writing topic, and seeing how experts differ from novices. This wasn't in terms in spelling etc. but more in their cognitive functions while writing. From that, I'd say I'm half-way between a novice and an expert - though I'm leaning more towards novice.

The next update will be on the fourth of June.

Edit: Or maybe not. / My beta reader still hasn't gotten back to me yet. Should I wait for her to get back to me, or should I post up the next chapter and then update with the beta version once she's sent it to me?