Kitsune here with the latest chapter. First, I would like to apologize to all my readers for the wait. I wanted to get this one done, and the next one started before posting, and I suffered from the inability to write for about two weeks. Not exactly writer's block...but I'm sure some of you have had this experience. So. Secondly, a BIG arigatÅ to my helper, The Last Anbu, and of course, my beta reader.
I haven't forgotten "Thanks and thanks again!" to all my lovely reviewers, favers, alerters, and c2ers. Seriously guys, it does mean a lot to me.
Now, since the last few chapters have had a little random question and my answer... I guess this chapter's is going to be "What is your favorite video game?" I have a few, but Kingdom Hearts, .hack/ and Jak II are my three top picks.
Speaking of games, I got no writing done the last few days, thanks to FFXIII. Oops. I'll have to do some writing tomorrow I hope. I also rescued a bat from my cats and dogs last night, and the same bat (got lose in my closed in porch...) today. I feel like a hero.
_*&*&*_POV ROY_*&*&*_
Roy was once again forced to re-evaluate his opinion of Naruto. The teen was a hyperactive nut job with a death wish. He had to be; that was the only explanation for asking Olivier if he could call her "Grandma." Armstrong had been barely able to stop his sister from killing the blond, who had quickly been whisked away from the immediate danger zone by Ed and Al. Hawkeye, after a sigh, had gone after the boys to explain the finer points of insulting a lady. As for he and Kakashi, well, Roy knew better than to laugh at Olivier, but that didn't mean he wasn't going to laugh at the silver haired man's look of long-suffering annoyance.
Finally the one eyed man sighed. "The truly sad part," Kakashi said, pulling out his book, "Is that, coming from Naruto, that's a compliment." Noticing Olivier was contemplating killing him, he attempted to explain, "Naruto calls the leader of our village 'Tsunade-baa-chan,' or, basically, Granny-Tsunade."
"I don't care what he calls his grandma. He calls me that again and I'll toss his ass in a cell on bread and water rations." The woman snarled, "Civilians or not, I won't put up with such disrespect, even if you are here to help."
"Baa-chan isn't my real granny, you know." Roy's eye twitched as the voice came from above them. I won't look. I don't want to know. I REALLY don't want to know... He pointedly ignored the copious dust drifting down from above. "I don't have any family, so she can't be my grandma, you see? Besides, she never had kids." He rubbed the bridge of his nose as the woman spun around, sword drawn, a look of confused fury on her face.
"HA! We caught you! That was a real sneaky trick, you bastard!" More dust, and other crap fell from above.
"Brother! That's no way to talk to someone who's agreed to help teach you..."
"Only because we've got something they want, Al!" Olivier slowly looked up, her usually stoic expression fading into one of shock. "Besides, it's exactly what you should call someone who gives you the slip like that."
"Mustang?"
Roy sighed, sharing a look with the unsurprised Kakashi and the grinning Alex, "Yes, Olivier?"
"Why is FullMetal on the ceiling?" She sounded surprisingly calm.
"Ask the new guys."
Luckily for the three men, they were saved from answering as Ed looked up. Or down, as it were. "Oh, hey guys! Pretty neat, huh?"
"A new form of alchemy, Edward?"
"Not exactly." The three blonds fell from the ceiling, each athletically flipping to their feet before they hit the floor. "Chakra, actually. It's complicated, but basically it's manipulating your own energies to do some really amazing stuff." Roy decided it was time to take over.
"These two gentlemen," He ignored Olivier's snort, instead nodding to Hawkeye who came trotting up, glaring at the boys, "Are masters at this 'chakra manipulation' Ed is talking about. They've agreed to help teach the Elric's as well as aid in the investigation here in exchange for some assistance."
"Assistance with what?"
"That's classified."
"Fine, then they can teach from their nice new cell."
"Not another cell!" Naruto whined, "You promised!"
"And what exactly is that supposed to mean?"
"Nothing, nothing at all, Olivier. The truth is kind of hard to believe, and I will explain it in full later, but for now let's just say they need... directions home."
"Why are things never simple when you get involved?" She muttered, though Roy caught the excited gleam in her eyes.
_*&*&*_POV Naruto_*&*&*_
Naruto couldn't help but chuckle to himself as he and the two brothers were told in no uncertain terms to go away and stay out of trouble. Something about the meeting not being for kids... he hadn't been a kid for a long time, at least not in the way that woman had meant. Ed apparently didn't see the humor of the situation, however. He had a look on his face that promised pain for the next person to piss him off, which seemed to be Naruto at the moment. "What the hell is so funny?"
Naruto shrugged as he followed the two down the halls for the impromptu tour, "I'm just not used to people trying to protect me from stupid little shit like this. I mean, protect me from an evil organization that wants to kill everyone I know and destroy the world by taking the Kyuubi out of me in a horribly painful manner, yeah. But a meeting about some guy who's invaded a base, and a conversation of if I can be trusted? That's rookie-stuff. I haven't dealt with that since I was, oh, five?"
The two slightly older teens just looked at him for a second before Al spoke up, "You didn't have much of a childhood, did you?"
"Well, I'm a shinobi."
"What about when you were a kid? Didn't your parents try and...?" Ed started, only to stop awkwardly, apparently remembering Naruto was also an orphan.
Naruto just grinned, "Don't worry about it. Iruka-sensei was cool, even if everyone else in the village hated me growing up. He and the old man took me to get ramen sometimes. Still, they didn't shelter me; they couldn't, really. Kinda hard to shelter someone from everyone in the village, and being shinobi, we're taught at a young age to see the truth, I guess."
"I've been wondering, what exactly do they teach you at that academy you went to?" Al asked, taking the opportunity to change the topic, "You keep saying you're 'taught to be a shinobi' but how?"
"You know, shinobi stuff. Chakra control, taijutsu, genjutsu, ninjutsu. History and shit. Probably what you learned in whatever school you went to for alchemy."
The boys shook their heads, "We don't have any schools here to teach you to be an alchemist. You study it on your own." Al explained, "We were self taught, and then we found a teacher."
"And your government actually relies on this method?" Naruto couldn't believe his ears. This country seemed to depend on alchemy as both a fighting force and an economic strength. At least, that's what it sounded like when that jerk-wad Roy had been going on and on about it. To think they didn't have a school for it seemed, well, stupid. He shook his head, "Everyone goes to the Academy in our village. Even the civilians have a rank of genin, and you have to serve as a genin for at least a year before you're allowed to be a civilian. Iruka-sensei told me it used to be a longer term, but then it took longer for them to learn a trade-skill."
"That makes a lot of sense, I guess. Not only would your civilians know what to do in case of an invasion, you've also increased your overall fighting force if it's needed." Ed looked pensive, "But you're put on teams, right? What if one of the members decides to leave?"
"I think that they usually put civilian kids on the same teams so they can all leave together. Most of them go to some different classes, too. Doesn't always work that way, I guess, since Sakura-chan's family are not ninja... come to think of it, if she'd left after a year, it would have been a big problem, I guess." Naruto shrugged, "Anyway. In the academy, you just learn the basics, really. It's really boring, but the whole point is to get you proficient in what you need. Like, I had to take classes in math and science with everyone else, in case I became an explosives specialist or something."
"Really?"
"Yeah. Don't remember any of it, though." Naruto laughed at their expressions, "The stuff Kakashi-sensei is teaching you? If you were in a village, you wouldn't start learning that until you were a genin. Even then, most of it is only for genin planning on staying shinobi."
Al perked up, reminding Naruto for a moment of Konohamaru, "So what do you think of our skills then?"
"Not too bad. You've got chakra control down, at least." He sighed, "I don't really know what to teach you, since you said you didn't wanna use it to fight. I mean, other than substitution and henge, that is."
"Like how you turned into a girl and a rock?" Al asked, "Would you show us?"
"Well, yeah, I guess I can." Naruto grinned, sniffing the air, "I'll show you on the way to get some food!"
As the three wandered the halls in the vague direction of the cafeteria, Naruto ran though the hand signs of henge. While he was sure that nothing too bad could happen from the practice, he made the two brothers memorize the signs without using any chakra in them first. He would have been prouder of how fast they picked up the signs except for the fact that he knew they were geniuses.Before you know it, they're going to be doing their own techniques. Hmm, maybe if we stick around long enough, we'll swap some? "Anyway, now that you've gotten the hand signs down for the basic henge, it's really just a matter of figuring out how much chakra to use. Oh! And of course, you've got to really know what you're turning into."
"If you turn into a person, how could you mess that up?" Ed scoffed.
"Hmm, it's like when I turned into ash-face. You didn't notice I was a fake..."
"Except you didn't know who I was."
"Besides that, though. I studied him first. How he walked, the cocky look, his gloves...what hand he used." Naruto grinned, "Actually, this one time, my friend Sasuke caught a guy henged as me because he forgot to put his weapon pouch on the correct side. Little things like that can make or break your henge."
"I see." Al nodded as they rounded the corner, coming face to face with a man bundled up in winter gear carrying a bag. "Oh! Sorry about that, sir..."
Ed glared at the man, "Who the hell are you?"
"Brother!"
"What, Al? The base is under siege and we run into some strange dude wandering the halls. Sorry, mister, but I'm sure you understand under the circumstances..."
The man just stared down at them from behind dark shades. Naruto blinked, "Hey, is this guy one of those Ishballan people you keep telling me about? He's all tan and shit, right?"
"Ishballan..." Ed frowned for a moment before shifting into a battle ready stance, "INTRUDER!" he shouted.
The man took off, alarms sounding as people rolled out into the hall.
_*&*&*_POV ROY_*&*&*_
Roy couldn't believe his eyes. He'd been sure that the force interfering at Briggs would turn out to be a group of Dracmarian spies dabbling in alchemy in some form or another. He definitely wasn't expecting it to be one man. It was obvious that this guy had successfully infiltrated the fort more than once, judging by both his winter gear (part of him had to admire Olivier for knowing exactly what clothes had gone missing, and in what sizes) and the ease at which he raced though the halls. It was all Mustang could do to keep up with the man. It was possible that the man had help on the outside, but he didn't think so. The guy reminded him a bit of Scar, and it wasn't just the dark tan.
Shit, I'm running out of time. He recognized where he was now, they were almost to the roof, and once they got out there, it was all over. He had no clue where the others were, possibly still stuck down by the kitchen. That just left the flame alchemist to stop this guy. Roy knew if he failed, they wouldn't get another chance. This guy was too good, he'd vanish.
"STOP!" He hollered to no effect as they busted out onto the roof, "God damn it you bastard, I said STOP!" He snapped his fingers, sending a whip of fire after the man who aptly landed on the slightly raised ledge and grinned. "Don't even think about it! Get down from the ledge, slowly. Hands where I can see them."
Instead of complying the man crossed his arms, grousing, "What's with that fancy attack? I just needed a little snack."
"A snack? Is that what you call ten pounds of casserole? What about the other food that's gone missing from the larder?"
"Well, I guess that's quite a feat, but hey a man's gotta eat." With a cocky wave the man turned, obviously planning on taking the fast way down. Just as he was about to step into nothingness, a sharp kunai whistled pass his cheek. Roy kept his eyes on the guy as his head whipped around, glaring at Naruto, who had appeared out of nowhere. If the brat is here, the others can't be far behind."Who the hell are you?"
"The name's Naruto Uzumaki!" The blond shouted, charging the stranger.
"Naruto! Get back!" Kakashi appeared in a swirl of leaves as the others barreled through what was left of the doorway. The blond teen quickly changed his direction, landing next to his teacher.
"Kakashi-sensei?"
"Two shinobi from the Leaf come to give me grief?" The stranger growled out, taking on a battle ready stance.
"Keep away from him, Naruto. The rest of you, too. You can't handle him." The man put up his hand, forestalling the protests.
Roy cut his eyes over to the silver haired shinobi, noticing that the man's red eye was revealed. "You know this guy?"
"More or less. I know of him, at least. Killer Bee, correct? The Raikage sent word that you had been killed by Sasuke Uchiha."
"Like that runt could defeat me. I just took the opportunity to flee. After all, A has no say when the Bijuu needs to get away."
Roy raised an eyebrow, "Bijuu?" He should have guessed that there would be more of these shinobi involved. That old coot practically said there was at least one more person like Naruto and Kakashi here. How the hell does he do it!
"Wait, what? This asshole is the reason Sasuke-teme is on the missing-nin list now? And he isn't even injured? WHAT THE FUCK, man! You totally screwed my best friend!"
"Your best friend wanted me to meet my end," pointed out Killer Bee.
"Time out. You can go back to wanting to kick his ass later, Naruto." Ed asked, warily eying this 'Killer Bee'. "Kakashi, are you saying he's the same as Naruto, then?"
"HEY! Don't compare me to a badly rapping old dude with no fashion!"
"If you think my rapping is poor, how about I show you the door?"