This chapter gets a warning attached. There're a few lines that deserve a light "M" or stronger "T" warning, and trust me, you'll see them coming. It ain't for violence.

Thank you to my reviewers that wished me a better time of it. And, of course, my regulars. I seriously love you all. Life still sucks, but thanks to you guys, I have had this chapter running in my head (completed) since Tuesday. So here it is, after a FULL day of writing. (And watching Yuu Yuu Hakusho)

Cookies for all reviewers , favers, alerters, and basically everyone else.

Thanks, and thanks again.

And I'm going to keep using that until someone goes "Good God! Will you stop quoting...(blank)!"

*&*&*_POV Roy_*&*&*

"Well, believe it."

"How could anyone do that to a babe?" Armstrong truly looked disgusted. "It takes a true monster to do such a thing. Roy, we must help the boy!"

"Why the hell would I want to do that?"

"The lad has known no other life, my friend. He's been misguided, led astray from the path of righteousness. And yet, despite this, he has not truly given in to the beast within as some would have. No offence, Ling."

"None taken."

He could feel his eye twitch, "Need I remind you that he's attacked us?"

"Actually, sir," Hawkeye put in, "besides crashing into the building, he hasn't done anything to threaten our lives." She smirked, "Fireball not withstanding."

"Well then, fine, what about thethinginside him then? THAT is an obvious threat."

"You won't get any argument from us there, Roy." Ed shrugged, "But you haven't gotten anywhere treating Naruto himself as a threat. All you've done is piss him off, and I gotta say, I can't really blame him for being pissed off at all of us. We need to figure out where he's from and why he's here." The teen rubbed his hands together. "Now, he said something about an academy, right? Lan Fan, you know anything about it?"

"Me?"

"Yeah, well, this 'shinobi' fighting style is kinda similar to what you do, right? Any chance he's from a disgruntled clan in Xing?"Why didn't I think of that?

Lan Fan shook her head, "Unfortunately, it's very unlikely. Our training is handed down in families, all carefully controlled by the current emperor." She held up an orange book, showing them the cover. Roy couldn't make head or tail of what it said on the cover, but the circle with the slash symbol was almost a universal one. "Looking in this book, I'm sorry to say I couldn't understand any of it. I had May help, since she has more experience with ancient Xing languages, but we had no luck. There are some similarities, but I'm at a loss at what it says."

"Alphonse and I had similar problems," Scar put in, holding up the other book. The green cover had seen better days, the only similarity between it and the orange one being identical writing on the bottom. "I noted some similarities between older Ishballan religious texts, but I think it's just a coincidence."

Roy frowned, "So we're back to square one with the books then? Damn, I was hoping those books contained his mission."I've got to do better. If I keep letting this 'Naruto' get to me, we'll learn nothing. The kid is still suspicious, but as much as I hate to admit it, they could be right. He could just be a pawn, a distraction, for something larger.He looked at Edward with new respect; after all, he was getting results.True, they had no clue what the results meant yet, but it was still better than Mustang had been able to do.He's not letting his anger get the better of him..."All right, Fullmetal, this is your show for now. What's the plan?"

For an answer, the blond just scratched his head. "I'm just playing this as I go, Mustang. I was really hoping one of you would be able to read this chicken-scratch. I had no luck with it either, you know. Well, for now, I say Roy and I go back in there and see what else we can learn. Al, you might wanna make a speaker or something so you guys can listen in and see if we miss anything." He snagged the two books as he headed to the door.

"You aren't seriously going to just give him those back, are you?" Roy had to shake his head;I still say that they could contain orders, or plots to attack our country. No way I'm letting the pipsqueak give them back.

"Nah, I'm just gonna ask him what they say." The blond shrugged, "Who knows? He might just tell us the truth."

"I see. Ling, got any food on you?"

"Humm? Yeah..." The prince pulled a few meal bars out of his pocket, "Are you hungry or some...HEY! Those are mine!" Roy deftly snagged all of the bars before following Ed into the room.

What he saw brought him up short. The whiskered boy had not moved from his chair, though now he sat precariously balanced on the back of it. That wasn't what got him to stop and blink in surprise. "Where did you get that?" He asked, calmly walking up to the table and dropping the meal bars in front of the teen, who didn't even bother to look up from his task of repairing the orange jacket resting on his knees

"Had them stitched into the lining of my jacket," came the absent-minded response. Deftly, he closed one of the larger rips in the orange top with neat stitches. "Growing up, I couldn't always get new clothes. The villagers, well, some of them didn't like me very much." He chuckled sardonically, "Actually, most of them didn't like me. So the old man would get me clothes that were big on me, and I did my own repairs to them when I needed to instead of going shopping." He grinned widely, "And then I went on a trip with my master. I practically re-made this outfit once a month." He tied off the string and slipped the needle along the zipper, hiding it away once more. "YAY! Food!" He slipped back down into the seat while pulling on the jacket before grabbing a meal bar.

Mustang blinked at the honest answer; he hadn't been expecting it. "Why orange?" he couldn't help but ask, "You claim to be a warrior of shadows, yet you choose to wear such a color."

Naruto just grinned, looking more like a fox than Roy was comfortable with. "Because it's my favorite color." He laughed, "Besides, have you ever tried to hide in bright orange? It's really, really hard. If I can hide in that, I can hide in almost anything." He tapped an uneaten meal bar to his chin, "Or I could say, when people do see me, they only remember the orange, not the person. So we'll just say it makes me more shinobi-like, while being great fashion."

"Great fashion my ass." Ed snorted, "Now, red, there's a fashionable color." He casually dropped the books on the table.

"Oh, hey! My books!"

"Don't get too excited now. It's not like I'm giving them back or anything. I'm just showing you that they're safe. We're going to need to borrow these a bit longer though to study them," Ed said, resting his chin in his hand.

Blue eyes met golden ones, before they turned to look at Roy. An incredulous look frozen on his face, the boy pointed a finger at the two of them. "Perverts!"

Ed actually smacked his head on the table with his chin in surprise, "W-what?"

"You heard me, you're both perverts! I bet that scar-faced man and squinty-eyes are too! Well, get your own copy!" He went to snatch the green book, "And give this one back! It's nothing like that, and you'll taint it with your stupid pervy-ness." Roy quickly grabbed the green book before Naruto could, earning a glare, "Why am I surrounded by perverts all the time?"

"How dare you call us perverts, you little shit!"

"Why the hell wouldn't I? Everyone who reads those books are perverts!"

Ed held up the orange book, "What makes you say that?"

He earned a 'duh' stare, "Well, that's generally what you call someone who reads porno-stories."

Roy exchanged a look with the older Elric brother, before looking at the book in question. "This is a pornograhic book?"

"Well, yeah. It's the last 'Come Come Paradise' book ever written. You don't get more pervy then that."

Apparently he's forgotten that he's not going to answer me. "And this one?" He held up the green book, "Is it an...illicit book as well?"

"No! That's the author's first book, autographed. So, please be very careful with it!"

"But they're by the same author?"

"Yes. Can't you read, you morons? He didn't use a different pen name or anything."

"I've got one more question for you then." Roy smirked, "What are you, a minor, doing in possession of a porno?"

The teen looked nervous, "Well, er... Master kept giving them to me. I couldn't exactly give them back."

"I knew it! You're lying! What are these really? Mission orders? A plot to take over the country?"

"What are you talking about? I told you what they were! It's not like you can't read them!" The blond blinked, cocking his head to the side, he crossed his arms, "Or can you? You can't, right?" He looked down, muttering, "Stupid grinningcreepy idiotsending me to this place. Can't believe my luck. GAH! How am I supposed to order ramen if I can't read a menu?" He looked at them and noticed that they didn't believe him. "What, don't believe me?" He snatched the book from Ed's hand and opened it up to a random page. "Shinoko looked deep into his eyes, 'Oh, Renji, we shouldn't! What would our clans say?' Renji ran a sensual finger along her bottom lip, as his hand gently stroked her center, 'My darling, don't. We will face that when it comes. For now, just let me love you.' With a sigh, she leaned in for a deep kiss, feeling his..."

Roy blushed, "ENOUGH! I believe you!"

"Oh come on, I was just getting to the best part!" The boy grinned, "Want me to read the other one instead? That one's'The Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Shinobi', and it's about a shinobi who saves his village by sticking to his morals, and standing up for what's good and just. It came out right after a war, though, so it wasn't very popular."

"And they're by the same author?" Edward asked, "Why would your master give you pornos? He sounds like the real pervert."

"Well, yeah, he was the biggest perv ever!" The other blond laughed, "You know what, first time I met him, he was peeking in the women's bath! 'Research,' he said. He was always doing stuff like that." A soft look crossed his face, "But he was really something, strong, wise, well sometimes at least. He was a great teacher."

"You miss him."

Naruto nodded, "I even miss going over the manuscripts for his books."

Wait...his Master wrote these?He looked at Edward and raised an eyebrow,are we sure that they aren't mission orders?"Your teacher wrote these?" He received a nod, "And you helped with the manuscripts at sixteen?"

"Well, actually, I started helping when I was thirteen, but yeah."

"Thirteen?"Armstrong's right, this kid is seriously messed up. When he says 'master', does he mean master as in teacher, or master as in master I wonder?

"Ok then, changing the topic." Ed interrupted, "Did he teach you that thing, 'Sage mode' I think you called it?"

"That? Oh, no, I learned that from the toad elder see, it's about getting in touch with nature chakra, without letting it overwhelm you. If you master that, you can do all sorts of amazing things. I spent a lot of time meditating under waterfalls and stuff, but I finally got it."

"A toad taught you how to do that?"

"Yep. He taught me some other stuff, too." He grinned, "Toads are really cool."

"Can you give us another demonstration of this Sage mode?"

"Mmmm," Naruto looked away, "I can, but wouldn't you rather I do it where your other friends can watch? I mean, right now, all they can do is hear us, and maybe sense my chakra, right?"

Mustang looked away, chagrined, "You knew they were listening?"

"I saw that weird blue glow before, but nothing happened, so I figured it was to spy on what was going on in here."

"Well, if it's all right with you, yeah, I'd really like them to watch. But first we've got to set up a secure location. Can't have you making another break for it." Ed grinned, "How about tomorrow morning?"

"Tch. Works for me. And I won't run tomorrow. I give you my word." Blue eyes bored into Roy's, "Unless you try to light me on fire, shoot me for no reason, or melt away parts of my body again, that is."

"Mustang?"

"Fine. I'll give you my word that if you don't try to run away, we won't try and hurt you." He growled, "I just want to get to the bottom of this as quickly as possible." The blond grinned and put out a hand. Roy blinked at it for a second before realizing what the teen wanted. Grudgingly he clasped hands. "Deal."

"Deal!"

So the FMA group is finally getting somewhere! Of course, this is Naruto, so naturally he ends up confusing them, making more questions. Next chap, we will be seeing the sky again! Oh, and Sage mode, of course. Roy's going to try really, really hard not to keep attacking Naruto, but he is an unknown factor, so it's not going to be easy. I don't really have anything else to say. Next chapter is currently being planned in my head.