New chapter. Lots of talking, not a lot of action. I've got nothing much to say here. I think we're really close to the end, though, people.

"Thanks and thanks again" for the reviews, faves, alerts, and C2s, people! Love you all.

_*&*&*_POV MUSTANG_*&*&*_

"You might want to get some food sent up here, then." Kakashi sighed, putting his book away, "And I had just gotten to the good part. I'm sure Naruto is hungry. He always is." Casually the man relaxed against a wall. "I assume we're going to be meeting everyone here, that is."

"You really think that they're going to listen to him?" Armstrong asked.

The silver haired man's eye crinkled in a smile, "You don't know Naruto like I do. He has a way about him. They'll listen. Of course, he could always just drag them down here, too."

Mustang mockingly chuckled, "That brat doesn't seem all that impressive to me."

"That is where you're wrong. I'll let you in on a secret. That 'brat' as you call him is by far a stronger shinobi than I am. In fact, he may be one of the strongest I have ever met. All he lacks is experience, which, if you think about it, is very lucky for you." The man continued to smile, "Of course, if you tell him I said that, I'll have to kill you. It's the older generation's job to keep the younger one motivated, after all."

Mustang gaped at the man. Suggesting the blond teen was stronger seemed ridiculous. He'd successfully managed to restrain the brat for a good length of time. "You're just saying he's stronger because he's a homunculus."

"Hmm? Homunculus...was it?"

"Yeah, you know, a created human," Alphonse explained from his position besides his brother. "That's what he is, right?"

"Kakashi-sensei!" A shout could be heard followed by what Roy assumed was the group that had gone to the roof, unless someone had let elephants in the building. A gold, orange and black blur streaked into the room to stop right next to Kakashi. "Ano...what I miss? Are we really having a truce? How did you convince the Uchiha-wannabe, huh? More importantly, can we go home? I want ramen!"

"Woah, he's fast." Ling said from the doorway, leaning against it. "Right, Lieutenant?"

Hawkeye just glared at the whiskered teen, who was pointedly ignoring Ling, Scar and Hawkeye. Mustang assumed that Lan Fan, May and possibly Winry had gone off to find Marcoh. If nothing else, the young ninja would keep the others out of danger. She'd been the first to point out that with this new enemy, they were in serious trouble.

Ed snorted, "You're just slow, Prince. Uchiha-wannabe? What the hell is that?"

"An Uchiha is..." started the silver haired man, "An Uchiha." he smiled behind his mask at Roy.Real helpful.The man gave a calm wave to the new people in the room, "Yo, again. I'm sorry, I didn't catch your names before, but no worries, I'm sure they weren't that important to begin with. Now, Naruto, could you please tell me what an Ishballan is? The tall man who reminds me of Gai for some reason called me that."

Naruto started to laugh, "Really? I can see that! That hair of yours does make you look so old, Kakashi-sensei!"

"Eh?"

Scar sighed from the doorway, "You are an idiot, boy."

"HEY!"

"An Ishaballan is a person who is from Ishbal, and follows the way of the one god. I'm an Ishballan. Your...friend, here, is obviously not, though his hair color suggests one of his ancestors was."

"Ah. A clan." Kakashi nodded, "I take it the clan characteristics are red eyes and white hair, then?" Scar nodded, a little surprised at Kakashi's quick, but apt, summary, "Now, what about a Homuculus?"

"Dunno, Kakashi-sensei. They keep calling me that, but I don't think they mean a jinchuuriki. That dude with the squinty eyes said he used to be one. That's impossible, though, right? I mean, Gaara died when they took Shukaku. Anyway, that guy said he used to be 'Greedy' or something, but wasn't anymore."

Kakashi sighed before looking at Roy, "Well?"

"Sorry, I don't speak idiot." And I'll be damned if I tell you anything. Pompous ass.

"Mustang!" snarled Ed, "We called a truce, remember? You military idiot, have you finally fried your brains to a crisp or what? Besides, it's not like it's a big secret." The short blond turned to Kakashi, "A homunculus is a human-like being created through alchemy. There used to be seven of them, named after the deadly sins. Basically, a synthetic human, with crazy powers, and practically impossible to kill."

"I can assure you, then, that Naruto is not one."

"But, his abilities!" Hawkeye gasped, "I've seen it for myself; he's just like them."

"Am not!"

"Oh come on, you're harder to kill than a cockroach!" Roy snapped back, "It's annoying!" Suddenly he got a cold chill. He noticed that Kaskashi was giving him a look that promised death, pain, and dismemberment.

"I'm going to pretend that I didn't just hear you admitting to trying to kill my student." The dangerous shinobi said lightly. "Naruto here is a jinchuuriki, not a homunculus. The difference being the fox inside of him was not man made." He paused for a second before shrugging, "At least, not technically. Kyuubi is a completely separate being from Naruto, as anyone who has truly fought the beast can attest to. Of course, if you mess with one, you tend to get the other, that's the nature of jinchuuriki."

Al looked confused, "So, the fox is a jinchuuriki?"

The whiskered youth shook his head. "No, Kyuubi is a Bijuu," he explained, "There's nine of them, but he's the strongest. I'm the Jinchuuriki." He noticed the confused looks. "Kinda like a jailer and host rolled into one, I guess." He pouted, "I don't see why we gotta talk to them about this, Sensei."

"We're exchanging information in an attempt to figure out how you ended up here. We have to assume Nagato sent you here for a reason. Have you found the other people yet?"

Armstrong frowned, "Other people? What other people?"

"Oh, you know, the girl in the mask, the runt, the blond and who ever they went to go find."

Naruto nodded, "Yeah, I found them." He jabbed a finger at Ed, "Your girlfriend is NUTS! She hit me with a wrench before I could explain anything!"

"Wait, you've been right in front of us since the roof. How on earth could you have gotten to them so fast?" Ling asked, "I would have seen you leave."

Roy scowled as the two shinobi apparently ignored the remark. "I take it they're on the way, at least?" Naruto nodded. "Well then. I think it's time to get in here, Naruto." Huh? But, he's right there! In a flash, Kakashi had a kunai out and stabbed it straight into his student who looked at him in mock-shock.

Roy couldn't believe it, the man who had so casually threatened to kill anyone who got in the way of him rescuing his student had just killed the brat! Even if he can survive that, it's just too cruel! They're supposed to be allies! What kind of place do these nut jobs come from? "What the hell!"

PUFFT! The stabbed teen vanished in a cloud of smoke. "That was really uncool, Sensei." Roy spun around to see Naruto casually sitting in the open window. "You could have just told the clone to dispel, you know."

"And deprive myself of scaring these people?" The man shrugged, "It was much more amusing this way."

"Maybe for you," Ed muttered mutinously. "I'm sure you had a point in scaring the shit out of us?"

"Besides my own amusement, you mean? Yes." Kakashi looked pleased for some reason, "I was testing you, of course. You know nothing about shinobi, or you'd recognize a doppelganger as a clone, even if it was a shadow clone. You thought it was a real person, however. I doubt we're even in our world, let alone the elemental nations." He shook his head, "I can say this for you, Naruto. Even when getting kidnapped, you're the number one most unpredictable shinobi."

_*&*&*_POV NARUTO_*&*&*_

"Wait...what do you mean, we're not in our world?"

Just then the missing girls came running into the room, Doctor Marcoh right behind them. "ED! Are you alright? We ran into that guy, and when I hit him with my wrench he just went up in smoke! Can you..." Winry looked at a sheepish Naruto. "He's here! What's going on?" Wow, she's loud. She's a lot like Sakura like that. It was then she noticed Kakashi and flinched.

"Relax, Winry. You're giving me a headache." Ed waved her off, "We're at an impasse, basically."

"So you're just giving up?"

"Why shouldn't you? With Kakashi-sensei here, we could totally kick your asses!" Naruto boasted before Kakashi slapped a hand over his mouth.

"Is this the other man that appeared?" Marcoh asked, "I'd say that it's a pleasure, but I'm not so sure about that. Regardless, I'm sure we would all like some answers."

"That would be why we are all here, wouldn't it?" Kakashi nodded, "Now that I know that you didn't go out of your way to kidnap my student, I thought it would be in our best interest to improve relations here. Tsunade-sama did tell me to try to get Naruto out of whatever mess he landed in as 'diplomatically as possible.' So here we are."

Wait, something's not right. Kakashi always calls Tsunade-baa-chan Hokage. "Um, so, Kakashi-sensei, what's Baa-chan told the village about me being gone and all? I'm not in trouble, am I?"

"I was hoping to put this off till we got you back home safe and sound..."

"Ah crud, I'm in trouble, aren't I?" Tsunade-baa-chan is going to KILL me. Gahhhh Sakura's going to kill me, too!He had a sinking feeling,What if Yamato-taicho finds out I almost turned into the nine-tailed fox? Oh man, he's gonna HELP kill me. And Sai... Sai's probably going to say something ridiculously inappropriate and draw a picture of it.

"You could say that." Naruto could picture his tombstone'Here lies Uzumaki Naruto, survived by his friends who pounded him in to the ground after he vanished, leaving them to clean up his mess.'He cringed as Kakashi continued, "Tsunade-sama is no longer Hokage. Danzo is."

"Wait. WHAT?" He felt like the world had dropped out from under him, "Is she ok? What happened? Danzo's that ass who made Sai do all that stupid shit, right? How the HELL did he become Hokage?"

The man put a hand on his student's shoulder, "Relax, Naruto, she's fine. Well, now she is. She'd pushed herself right into a chakra-exhaustion induced coma, but luckily, hearing you had vanished, she woke right up. Something about finding you and beating the crap out of you." Somehow, that didn't seem too lucky to Naruto. Kakashi looked at their audience, who were obviously confused, "Hokage is the leader of our village." He explained, "As for how Danzo became acting Hokage, while Tsunade-sama was out, he called a council meeting and demanded a vote, claiming that the village was at risk without a leader. He was right, of course. When the council hesitated to give him the position, he went to the Fire Daimyo who gave him the spot."

"So, then, the Daimyo would be your King, and the Hokage is the leader of the military?" Roy asked as the young shinobi gaped like a fish. Kakashi nodded, but kept his eye on Naruto, who was in obvious shock.

"Why would he do that?"

Kakashi sighed, "Because he hadn't heard how Donzo and his Root remembers hid during the attack, I'm guessing."

Bullshit! "Sai didn't hide!"

"No, he didn't," Kakashi couldn't help but smile at the ready defense of the pale, socially awkward youth. "Who do you think told us? Unfortunately, Danzo is acting Hokage, and he's fighting to keep the position right now. He's telling anyone who'll listen that you were a part of the plan to attack the village, which is why you suddenly vanished."

"BUT!"

"No one in the village believes him. You forgot about Katsuyu; she kept everyone who survived informed about your battle as it was happening right up till the end. She did leave out you going 'poof' on us. No need to cause a panic. Even those old council members are fighting putting you on the missing-nin list with Sasuke."

"Missing-nin? You're kidding, right?"

Kakashi ignored him and continued, "Tsunade-sama is petitioning the Daimyo to reverse his decision on Hokage, but she's still weak, and Danzo is attempting to use her connection with you against her." He gave a cruel smile, "It's not working as well as he'd like, since so many saw you save the village. That, and with certain 'rumors' that have suddenly cropped up about the acting Rokudaime, he shouldn't be in power long."

"So, getting me back as soon as possible is, like, damage control?"

"Exactly. Not to mention it will strengthen Tsunade-sama's position to have the hero of the village backing her." Kakashi gave him a heart-warming smile, "I'm real proud of you, Naruto. I wish I could have seen it."

"Why couldn't you have?" Armstrong asked, "Were you not in the village, defending it from this foe?"

"I was there, but by the time Naruto arrived, I had been defeated."

Ed scoffed, "What, is there some rule that says the defeated can't stick around and watch?"

Naruto rounded on the other blond teen, angry that he could make light of the horrors of battle like that. Doesn't he get it? He fumed, ready to verbally rip into him. Kakashi put a hand on his shoulder again, stopping him. "It was war." Kakashi simply said.

Scar sharply looked at him, "You were one of the fallen. One of the ones brought back."

"You were dead?" May yelped, ducking behind Al as Naruto scowled at her.

"That was what young Naruto meant by 'bringing back the dead.' This Nagato resurrected the victims of war?"

Kakashi nodded, "Basically, yes. All of our casualties were brought back. The medical nin are still working around the clock to deal with those that were hurt."

"You...You can't bring people back from the dead!" Ed snarled, "It's against the rules of Alchemy!"

Kakashi blinked, "I'm not sure what Alchemy is, but I assure you, I was quite dead. I had a very interesting conversation with my father, in fact."

Naruto grinned, "Did you punch your old man, too?" before he went to punch his sensei, who easily blocked the blow.

"What was that for?" The man asked, still trying to process Naruto's cryptic remark.

"For not telling me my Dad was your old teacher and my idol, the Yondaime Hokage! HOW could you not TELL me something like that?" Naruto pouted, "You guys all have a LOT of explaining to do back home, you know."