Outsider Chronicles: Sage of Alchemy

Getting reborn is an interesting experience. Getting reborn into a world consumed with war and bloodshed, at the mercy of an immortal maniac out to become god is a pain in the neck. Still, at least I didn't lose my body. Unfortunately, these eyes make me think that maybe I'd be better as a walking suit of armour.

Hehehe, enjoy!

Chapter 2

"What are you doing Al?" asked Winry as I pulled back the sheet.

"Well, Ed and I gave a lot to make this, I kinda want to see what the result is," I said, "Hmm, interesting…"

Shortly after I woke up and checked on Ed (who was still unconscious), I asked Granny what she had done with what we had made. Apparently, me fixing the recipe and ensuring we had the right parts as opposed to being completely wrong had payed of and we had managed to create a perfect Human body. On the down side, it wasn't Mum. It was male for starters, with black hair and slate gray eyes.

"Alright, lets give this a shot," I said, holding out a hand and focusing.

I smirked and Winry gasped as a black rod emerged from my palm.

"W-what is that?" she asked, "Was that Alchemy?"

"Nope, not even close," I said as the rod broke off and fell into my hand, "Now then, I think that if I do this…"

I raised the rod and stabbed it into the body's chest, right over the heart.

"W-what are you…"

I held up a hand as I made a half rat sign with the other.

"You'll see in a moment," I said, "Ninja Art: Six Paths Jutsu."

For a moment, nothing happened. Then, the body twitched.

"Whooo boy, this feels weird," I said as I stumbled.

"What does?" asked Winry, "Al, what did you do?"

"Its one of the abilities of the Six Paths," I said, "I can use other bodies as puppets. Like so."

The body sat up and waved at Winry.

"I can see through and control both bodies simultaneously," I said through the body as it opened its eyes to reveal the Rinnegan, "Its gonna take some practice though."

Winry looked between my two bodies a few times, before her eyes rolled back into her head and she collapsed.

"Hmm, maybe I should have let her in gently to my abilities," I muttered as I caught her.

I deactivated my technique, causing the body to go limp again, as I carried Winry out of the room.

"What did you do Alphonse?" asked Granny.

"Just demonstrated a new technique," I said, "Oh, don't get rid of that body. I'll need it."

"What could you possibly intend to use something like that for?"

"You'll see," I said with a smirk.

Granny eyed me wearily, before sighing.

"Fair enough, I won't get rid of it," she said, "Oh, by the way, Ed just woke up."

I gave her a flat look.

"And you didn't lead with that, why?" I asked.

"Because you have my unconscious Granddaughter in your arms," deadpanned the old woman.

"Point taken," I said.

After dropping Winry on the sofa where she'd be comfortable until she woke up, I headed to Ed's room where I found my brother staring up at the ceiling with a blank look on his face. As I opened the door, he shifted slightly to look at me, before returning his gaze to the ceiling. I didn't say anything as I walked over and dropped into the seat next to his bed.

"Go on, say it," he muttered.

I snorted.

"It kinda seems pointless to say it now," I said, "Besides, I can't really feel smug with you in that state."

"And yet you came out unscathed," said Ed.

"Not entirely," I said, "I lost my eyes during the Transmutation, but due to...certain circumstances, Truth gave me these as a replacement."

"How is that Equivalent Exchange?" asked Ed.

"Well, I'll have to use them to save the world from a monster out to trap everyone in an endless illusion," I said.

Ed gave me a flat look.

"What?"

I shrugged.

"Hey, don't ask me, I only know what Truth rammed into my head."

Ed snorted. For a moment, we were silent, before I spoke up again.

"So, what are you going to do now?" I asked.

"I...don't know," said Ed, "I take it the Transmutation failed?"

"Surprisingly enough, we managed to make a perfect Human body," I said, "But it wasn't Mum and its non-functioning due to a lack of Soul."

"Huh, thats interesting," muttered Ed, "Guess Human Transmutation isn't such a pipe dream…"

"Well, the creation of Human bodies isn't," I said, "But bringing someone back to life through Alchemy is impossible."

"Hmm…"

We fell silent again.

"Hey Al, what do you want to do?" asked Ed.

"Hmm, interesting question," I said, "I guess...for now I want to master my abilities to the fullest. I'll need them for the future. Then...I don't know. I guess I'd like to see more of the world than just Amatris. However, I think the first thing we should do is try and get your body back to normal."

"And just how do you plan to do that?" asked Ed.

I shrugged.

"Theres an entire world out there Ed," I said, "Somewhere they must have something that can restore missing limbs."

Ed stared at me for a moment, a thoughtful look on his face.

"Well, there is the Philosopher's Stone," he muttered.

I hid a smirk. Bingo. Now, you might be wondering why I was willing to let things roll into canon, but the reasoning was simple. Ed and Al did a lot of good on their journey for a lot of people. Without them, who knows what could happen to people like Rose, the people of Youswell, Satella and even Mei and Ling if we didn't go on our journey? Plus, we had to deal with Father at some point or we wouldn't have to worry about dealing with Kaguya cus we'd all be dead.

A few days after Ed woke up, Mustang and Hawkeye showed up and, after scolding us, made the offer of becoming State Alchemists. I had no interest, mainly because I had other things to worry about, but Ed decided to take him up on the offer. After getting his Automail of course.

While he was doing that, I was hard at work at my own thing, mostly mastering my Rinnegan abilities, ranging from my Paths to controlling my additional body's, acquired by modifying the Transmutation Circle we used to attempt to revive Mum. The five new ones were created with a Chakra Receiver built into them and I quickly discovered that, in doing so, they became much more receptive to my control. I managed to send one body to the other side of the country with no problem whatsoever, although after it got more than ten miles away, I lost the ability to channel the power of the Paths through it. It could still use Chakra and Alchemy though.

Speaking of my Six Paths, I still haven't entirely figured out how the hell the Transmutation worked since every one of them was different. I somehow ended up with six different bodies, despite the fact I used the exact same materials and circle to create them.

With that ability discovered, I decided to make use of it to learn as much as I could about other skills and abilities that could come in handy in the future battles. There was very little in Amestris I could learn without Father knowing about it and having a counter, so I did the next logical thing. I sent them east, across the desert. Not to Xing to learn Alkahestry, but beyond to the land on the other side of a treacherous and deadly range of mountains where I would be able to learn all sorts of deadly techniques. What techniques are those? Why, Ninjutsu of course! Yep, as if it wasn't already obvious from the fact I have the Rinnegan, the Elemental Nations exist in this reality. I'm not really sure where exactly they are in the Timeline, but I'd find out soon enough.

Since I had six Paths, I decided that the most efficient way of using them was to send one to each of the Five Great Nations and have the sixth act as a traveler to gather intel and potentially learn techniques that those in the Villages could not. Obviously, being in seven places at once was rather difficult at first, but I think that either the Truth or the Rinnegan had done something to my brain, allowing me to create mental compartments so I could literally do seven things at once without any noticeable dip in focus. Sure, doing things like this basically cut my Chakra reserves down to a seventh of what it could have been, but it was also excellent exercise and I had no doubt my reserves would skyrocket very quickly. Plus, I also had Alchemy to fall back on, just in case.

While I was doing that, Ed was going through the agonizing process of receiving Automail and undergoing physical therapy to get used to it. There were multiple times that he ended up coughing up blood, but he persevered, never giving up and pushing himself everyday until eventually, he was able to move and fight with the same speed and precision he had when he had both arms and legs. He still wasn't as good as me though, even before I had my Paths start to learn Ninjutsu. Still, he was able to push me, so he was really good.

"Impressive," I said, "Looks like you're back to full strength."

"Yeah, finally," said Ed, "Now all thats left is to try some Alchemy."

He clapped his hands and transmuted his arm into a blade.

"Hmm, nice," I said.

"Yeah, that should do it!" said Ed, admiring his creation.

"Yeah, but you should probably change it back before…"

CLANG!

A wrench slammed into Ed's head, knocking him for six.

"OWWW!"

"HEY, YOU'D BETTER NOT BE MESSING UP MY AUTOMAIL!" yelled Winry from the balcony.

"HEY, THAT HURT!" yelled Ed, "You should act more like a girl and less like a gearhead!"

"Well sorry but your stuck with this Gearhead!" yelled Winry, "So long as you're wearing my Automail, I'm the one who's going to be keeping you working!"

"Tch, fine," grumbled Ed as he reversed his Transmutation.

And so, with his limbs now fully operational, Ed started his preparations for the State Alchemist exams and, a month after he recovered, the date rolled around and he headed out to catch the train to Centeral.

"Hey Al," said Winry as we watched Ed walk down the road in the direction of the Station, "If Ed passes and becomes a State Alchemist, you'll leave, won't you?"

I glanced up at my friend and sighed.

"Yeah, we will," I said, "But I promise that we'll come back once in awhile."

I snorted.

"Even if I have to drag him back."

Winry gave a weak chuckle.

"Thanks Al," she said.

Third Person POV, Unknown Location.

"Hmm, so this is the new Sacrifice?" said a shadowy figure sitting on a chair connected to a multitude of pipes, "And its Hoenhimes brat…interesting"

He glanced up at a figure stood to attention before him.

"Make sure he passes," said the figure, "We need him where we can keep an eye on him."

"Of course Master," said the second figure with a bow.

The figure turned and marched out of the room. For a moment, the room was silent, before the figure spoke again.

"Stop hiding in the dark and come out."

"Heh, impressive," said a new voice as a cloaked shadow seemed to step out of the wall, "I'm surprised you sensed me at all."

The first figure scoffed.

"You are in the heart of my domain, of course I could sense you."

The cloaked man chuckled.

"Tell me, how goes things here Homunculus?" he asked.

Homunculus closed his eyes.

"Well enough," he said, "Even without Greed, my Children are performing their roles well. It will be a few years yet before we are ready however. And you?"

"Very well indeed," said the cloaked man, "My pawns are carrying out their roles to perfection and I recently gained a very interesting piece. A man who slaughtered his entire clan in a single night."

"Oh? That is impressive," said Homunculus, "Between the Monster of the Mist, the Red Scorpion, the White Snake and the God and his Angel, and now this new face, your little organization is becoming very powerful. I dare even say, they could match up to my children in raw power."

He opened his eyes and glanced at the cloaked man through the corner of his eye, the only part of him that was visible was a single, glowing red eye with three commer shaped markings slowly rotating around the pupil.

"Don't you agree Madara?"

Ah, that can't be good. I almost feel guilty that this story will probably never get continued…

So, Father is working with Madara...or at least Obito pretending to be Madara. That could be very, very bad indeed for our heroes.

Incidentally, the start of FMA canon will be around the same time as the start of the Naruto canon, meaning that Al is three years older than Naruto.

So what do you think of my variant of the Six Paths Jutsu? I created it so I could both nerf and overpower Al at will. Basically, so long as the Paths are active, he only has access to a small amount of Chakra, so he will mostly be using Taijutsu and Alchemy in combat...at least for now. Once shit hits the fan, he won't hesitate to either shut down or summon back his Paths to access his full power and kick arse.

Incidentally, who do you think has more power, the Akatsuki or Father and the Homunculi? Personally, my money's on the Akatsuki. After all, the Homunculus may be able to regenerate quickly, but Ninja have far more destructive techniques at their fingertips. On a side note, who wants to see Kimbley and Deidara meet?

And done. Don't forget to leave a review on your way out!