Title: Hagane no Shinobi

Disclaimer: See the prefic info.

"Normal speech." (Japanese.)

"Foreign language." (English.)

Thoughts.

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August 2nd: It's about time.

Yay. Al and I finally got rescued! Though we shouldn't have needed it in the first place. Things are going to get very interesting from now on, it seems. And damn me for not reading what I sign…

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A gentle breeze rustled through the trees of the great forest surrounding the proud shinobi village of Konohagakure, speaking soft secrets of its inhabitants that only those willing to listen could ever catch or comprehend. Birds flocked overhead, the sound of their feathered wings adding beat to Nature's never-ending song, only to vanish as they landed in thick foliage. The rushing of one of the numerous rivers crisscrossing the great country filled the clearing that the four-man team had been training in only moments before.

Uzumaki Naruto gave off a huge sigh, laying back flat on the hard ground, spreading out his arms wide, his bright orange shirt and blonde hair a stark contrast to the pale brown packed dirt below him. Easily described as cute instead of handsome, the sixteen-year-old looked at least four years younger with the expression that was gracing his whisker-marked cheeks. "Man, I'm tired."

Nara Shikamaru, sprawled out on the grass nearby, let out the most bored sounding yawn possible, watching what he could of the sky and clouds above through the constantly moving leaves, the dappled light glittering all around. "You wouldn't be so tired if you actually thought your attacks through before jumping into them." He said idly. Never one to enjoy arguing – or most conversation period – he immediately regretted the words that had slipped past his lips, if only for the fact that he knew Naruto to be one that just could not keep his mouth shut; especially where his ego was concerned.

Naruto's voice took on an indignant tone, "I do think them through! Just 'cause I don't plan ahead like a thousand moves doesn't mean I don't plan." He ignored the faint shrug from the other and continued on, "I mean, I know you have to plan for anything that can happen, but you can't anticipate everything an enemy is gonna do, and it's a good thing to be spontaneous sometimes! Which is why I beat you every now and then." The blonde finished with a catty grin, pointing a finger at his fellow chuunin.

He closed his eyes, forever the non-confrontational type, "Mou, you're being loud." Shikamaru said with a faint sweatdrop, avoiding the topic, not seeing the smile Lee cast in their direction, the wide-eyed young man switching pinkies to continue his cool down push-ups, likely well into the hundreds with no sign of slowing or stopping.

Uchiha Sasuke peered down from the tree he was sitting in, his back pressed against the large trunk. His dark clothing set him apart from the vibrant green leaves rustling gently around him. Long black bangs lightly caressed his pale cheeks, the wind playing with his hair. "Naruto, you just lost to him. Brag about winning when you actually do it."

"Urusai na Sasuke teme!" Naruto all but shouted, sitting up to glare at his rival on his higher perch, the mocking grin the Uchiha tossed down riling him up even more, Naruto's personality unable to ignore the obvious jibe. "You can't brag either, Sasuke! Lee kicked your butt as quickly as Shikamaru kicked mine!"

Sasuke rolled his eyes with a snort of air through his nostrils, "Hmph, at least I don't make excuses."

"There's a difference between excuses and reasons." Naruto replied with a flat look.

"Not much of a difference…" Rock Lee piped up, finally sitting down after his stretches. He ran a bandage wrapped hand over his smooth bowl cut, absently taming a few stray strands, while large, dark round eyes peered about at his companions quietly.

Sasuke ignored the 'oi' out of the blonde menace at Lee's comment, "Not the way you give them."

"How bothersome…" sighed Shikamaru, their arguing disturbing his contemplation of the clouds above, the wind whipping the fluff into varying shapes.

Naruto laid back on the ground with his arms crossed in a severe pout. "Everyone's against me."

"That's not true and you know it, Naruto-kun." Lee spoke, chuckling a bit.

"Everyone just likes to point out when you're wrong." Shikamaru said with a casual shrug.

Before Naruto could protest their words, Sasuke's voice filtered in, "Which is often." The Uchiha enjoyed pushing the other young man's buttons as often as possible.

"OI!" Naruto yelled, picking up a stray rock and throwing at Sasuke's smirking face, knowing he would either catch or dodge it, but not really caring, only wanting to get out his frustrations at his words.

"Usuratonkachi." He said flatly after catching the small stone, dropping it to the ground, not even bothering to throw it back at him and continue the childish fight Naruto was trying to start. Although their relationship had steadily gotten better since their last truly serious fight, the tension and rivalry still stood. Mostly because Sasuke found it fun.

"Deserter." The blonde tossed back coolly, knowing his stunt of attempting to go to Orochimaru for power, still did not set well with Sasuke. Only Naruto and Gaara's intervention to bring him back to his senses and to Konoha had prevented him from joining with the man that was still out there, and a dangerous threat.

Tired of the petty arguing, and worried that two of his teammates would soon get into a real fight, Shikamaru sat up with a heavy sigh, looking between them. "How bothersome. Would you two children please play nice?" he finished with a flop back into his previous prone position. Shikamaru relaxed further when he was sure that the situation had been fully diffused, Naruto having laid back down himself, and Sasuke's return to sullen silence.

The silence did not last long as Naruto let out a whiny sigh, "When are we gonna get a new mission? I'm booooooored!"

"Probably after all the diplomacy stuff is over with." Shikamaru spoke, hands folded behind his head, cradling it from the ground beneath.

He blinked over at the relaxed shinobi with a clueless expression, "Diplomacy stuff? What diplomacy stuff? Are we getting another ally?"

"Possibly. Heard from someone that the ambassador hasn't shown yet, and they've not gotten any word from anyone yet."

"What ambassador? From where?"

"Gai-sensei said he's from a foreign country far away." Lee answered.

Shikamaru nodded in confirmation, "Aa, they're from Amestris. It's not on our continent."

Breaking his silence, Sasuke spoke, pointing out something Shikamaru had failed to mention, "There aren't any shinobi over there, though."

"Iie, but there are alchemists." He said, sitting up with a cat-like stretch.

"Alchemists? What's an alchemist?" The kitsune-eyed boy peered at him with another clueless expression.

Shikamaru opened his mouth to ask how could he not know what an alchemist was, when he noticed the inquisitive look on Lee's face as well, sweatdropping, "They're scientists really. They've learned the process of altering things by knowing their chemical compounds. It's akin to the way we've learned to manipulate chakra."

Naruto blinked again, a spark of interest lighting up his already vivid blue eyes. "Wow, that sounds cool."

He gave him a bit of a grin, recognizing the look, "It requires both a talent for it, and a lot of smarts."

"In other words, Naruto would fail miserably." Sasuke smirked. 'Oi!' was the energetic response, as well as a few more rocks tossed at his head. Chuckling, he caught each, letting them fall from slender fingers to join the one from earlier on the ground. His attention was taken away from the loud-mouthed blonde when the sound of faint voices from a fair distance away drifted to all of their ears.

"I'm sorry, brother!"

"Stop running! Get back here! Arrrgh!"

Sasuke dropped down from the tree lithely, looking at his teammates as they all stood, curious as to the source of the voices. "I'd say that was Naruto, if he wasn't five feet from me."

The blonde in question opened his mouth, looking as though he were about to protest his comment, then stops with a flat look. "…it does sorta sound like me. But that's not Japanese they're speaking."

"We should check it out, na?" Lee asked, looking to Shikamaru for approval, since he was the leader of their squad, shifting of the teams years prior having placed them together and out of their old ones – mostly due to Shikamaru and Lee's original teams having lost a member.

Shikamaru let out an irritated sigh, since he really would have preferred to just stay where they were and relax, but knew they could not rightly let a foreign presence pass without investigating. "How annoying."

They took the trees quickly and quietly, relying on their years of training to achieve invisibility. The greenery around them was a mere blur, their precise chakra control allowing them to move without risk of slipping on the wide branches. Shikamaru raised a hand in a silent signal to stop once they were close enough to see the owners of the voices, wanting to assess the situation before showing themselves to the two strangers below, not knowing if they might be Sound spies or not.

Though they'd be terrible spies if they're this loud… he thought.

Naruto raised an eyebrow at the spectacle below them, glancing briefly at Sasuke who was perched in the tree closest to him. He watched the small blonde-haired boy with his hair in a short braid, dressed in black and red curiously, blinking at the odd sight in the tree above the boy. A suit of armor..? Up.. a tree.

"I'm sorry, brother!" The armor spoke, clanking slightly as it shifted its position in the branches, the voice far too young and small for its size.

Below the shivering suit of metal, Edward Elric stood, shouting, "Get down here, Al!"

"No!" was Alphonse Elric's response.

"Why not!"

"Because you'll just yell at me again if I pick the wrong direction…" he almost seemed to sweatdrop.

"That's only because you've chosen the wrong direction for the past FIVE DAYS! Now get down here before I make you, Al!"

Al half slid, half dropped down the trunk to the ground, all but towering over his older brother. "Then don't ask me to pick!"

This is a very strange pair… Lee thought, watching the argument.

Sasuke's thoughts were on a different track however, The blonde is as loud as Naruto… too bad my English isn't as good as it could be. I'm only catching bits and pieces of what they're saying.

They don't seem to be spies, just lost travelers… Hn.. Shikamaru watched the exchange thoughtfully, gauging the situation. He looked over at Naruto when the whisker-marked boy let out a simple bird whistle, asking what they should do. The stealth code of the team went unnoticed to the ones below, further cementing their belief that they were not spies from enemy villages. Giving the okay after another moment's thought, he descended from the tree quietly.

"We've got to come across it eventually either way. The forest can't be endless." The short blonde with the braid sighed, running a white-gloved hand over his hair. He jumped back, bumping into the tall suit of armor behind him in surprise when Naruto dropped down from the tree not six feet from them.

"Konnichiwa!" Naruto chirped, giving them a wave, a wide grin stretched across his face.

"We heard you and came to see what was going on." Shikamaru said casually, hands stuffed in his pockets.

The look on Ed's face turned from one of surprise to relief, switching to the native language of the shinobi, he exclaimed, fluently, "Finally, people! I thought we'd get stuck wandering this stupid forest forever." He gave Al a look, the armor behind him actually managed to look abashed, giggling sheepishly.

Lee smiled at him reassuringly, relieved that they spoke their own language, "You seem very lost. Where are you headed?"

"Konohagakure. Do you know where it is?" he looked between the four, hopeful.

"Hmm…" Naruto feigned thoughtfulness, remaining silent for a moment before speaking, grinning like a kitsune at the '…' look on the foreigner's face. "Nope, never heard of it. Itei! Sasuke!"

Sasuke rolled his eyes after hitting Naruto over the head casually for his pretended cluelessness, giving him a look. "Usuratonkachi."

"We know where it's at." Shikamaru interrupted before they could get into it again.

The voice emanating from the armor seemed to brighten, "Really! That's wonderful!" His older brother looked equally relieved.

"Eh? Really? We're saved! I was getting tired of this stinking forest…" Edward frowned. Wandering lost through a forest was definitely not his idea of one of the top ten things to do while in a foreign country.

"It's not that bad…"

"Easy for you to say, Al. Can you take us there, please?" The short blonde asked their apparent leader.

Shikamaru nodded briefly before turning and walking away, "Yeah, it's this way."

The Ed grinned up at the tall suit of armor, "Civilization finally."

"Hehe. We're from Konoha." Naruto said, thumbing his hitai-ate, "I was just pulling your chain." He said with a grin, tongue between his teeth.

Oh yeah, Mustang said something about them wearing forehead protectors with a leaf symbol… he thought idly before asking, "Is it very far?"

"Eh, not really." Naruto shrugged, "Couple a miles maybe."

The petite blonde looked rather tired at hearing that, "Guess it could be farther." he sighed.

Naruto scoffed at his words, "Eh, a couple a miles ain't nothin'! I do fifty laps around Konoha every morning!"

A finger was jabbed in his direction, "You haven't been wandering lost in the woods for over a week either!" was the snapping reply.

Sasuke raised a slender eyebrow, "How did you get so lost?" Worse than Naruto. The younger brother backed away a few steps, immediately looking bashful – how a suit of armor could manage that was beyond him however - at Sasuke's rather simple question.

Adjusting his gloves, Edward spoke, "Well, first we got attacked, and that got us lost. Then he got us even more lost, claiming he knew which way to go." He finished, jabbing a thumb at his armored brother.

"I only suggested we go in a certain direction because you admitted you didn't have any idea Niisan." was Al's soft excuse.

The elder waved it off, "Same difference."

Niisan…? Shikamaru thought before speaking, "Attacked? What did they look like? Or rather, did you see the symbol on their hitai-ate?"

"It looked like a musical note or something." The small blonde said, drawing a little symbol with his finger on his forehead.

"Sound nins. Dammit, Tsunade-baachan's not gonna like that." Naruto groaned.

Sound nins… I think Mustang said something about that, too. Damn, shoulda paid more attention to his blabbering… Ed muttered in his head.

Naruto walked along beside them, being surprisingly quiet, hands laced together behind his head. Using the many small rocks littering the ground, he entertained himself as they traveled by kicking them at his rival, then pretending to have not meant to do so. His innocent smile was wiped from his face when the Uchiha had enough, sending a rock flying straight for his head, making the kitsune-faced boy duck.

"Wah! Omae!" he let out an indignant squawk.

"Don't kick them at me in the first place, aho." Sasuke glared.

"Aww, but the Uchiha symbol on your back is such a great target!"

"So is the hollow hole in your head." He spat back in reply.

Naruto shook a fist at him in anger for that remark, "OI! Don't talk to your future Hokage that way!"

Shikamaru sighed, rubbing a spot on his forehead, "Mattaku… We have guests here, if you remember."

"They never care what's going on." Lee sweatdropped.

The foreign blonde raised an eyebrow, "Future Hokage?"

"Only in his dreams." Sasuke smirked at Naruto.

"That's right! I'm gonna be the next Hokage! Shut UP, Sasuke!" He yelled at him.

"Isn't the current Hokage the Godaime?" the braided blonde inquired.

"Yup." Naruto answered, neither noticing the exchange of glances between Shikamaru and Lee, their suspicions rising at the question of specifics about their village's leader.

The small blonde nodded in response to the confirmation of his question. Just a little further and they could talk to this Hokage person and start the journey home. Ed's abhorrence over missions that held no bearing over their quest was clear on his face, giving him an overly serious expression. His attention turned quickly enough to the large wall rising up from the forest ahead of them, dominating the horizon. "Is that it?"

"Pin pon! Give him a prize!" Naruto grinned, jokingly.

The other blonde sweatdropped with a chuckle. I hope they don't give us any trouble trying to get in. I'm too tired and hungry to deal with it…

"So what's your reason for coming to Konoha?" Sasuke asked, knowing Shikamaru wouldn't, distrust of the foreigners written plainly on his face.

Stretching his arms above his head, he replied, "That's between me and the Godaime."

Naruto's expression went vaguely thoughtful at that, "You're here to see the Hokage? Hn."

"Yeah," he looked at the Konoha citizens, not missing the exchange of suspicious looks at his words, "problem with that?"

"That's not for us to really decide." Shikamaru shrugged.

Al leaned down slightly, clanking softly, lessening the distance between he and his brother. "Niisan, stop making us seem like suspicious people…"

He looked up at him, simply, "What? It's not any of their business." The petite youth stared up at the huge doors as they passed through their opening, What are they keeping in here, King Kong?

Naruto stood with his comrades as the brothers had their passports checked when they walked into the actual village. Speaking up when the guards found nothing out of order with their paperwork and let the odd pair in, he offered their assistance. "We'll 'escort' you two to the Hokage, ne, team?" his offer an obvious charade to stick close to the foreigners to discover their reason for being there, disliking not knowing just what was going on, and knowing the rest of his friends were likely to feel the exact same way.

"It would only be polite." Lee smiled with a nod.

Al chuckled a bit, softly. Niisan, why do you have to be so secretive? You could just say we're ambassadors…

"The Hokage's office is this way." Shikamaru directed.

"Good, sooner we get there, sooner we can get this over with." Edward sighed. The various buildings brought him relief, the weeklong stint in the woods causing him to miss civilization greatly – even if civilization was in the middle of nowhere.

Sasuke glanced over at him in silence, If he's an assassin, he's a terrible one.

Naruto, true to form, voiced exactly what they were all thinking, but was too tactless to keep it to himself. "Ya know, if you two are planning on killing Hokage-sama, you're bein' REEEEAL stupid about it. Plus, we're the best chuunin shinobi Konoha's got."

The armor moved, seeming quite shocked at his accusation, "K-kill? N-no!"

Sweatdropping greatly, the smaller brother spoke with a flat expression and tone, obviously annoyed with Naruto's assessment. "I don't think we'd be stupid enough to come through the front gates if we were going to do that."

"Didn't think so, but wanted to say so." He grinned proudly, the rest of his teaming knowing he could never miss a chance to brag, either too clueless or just not caring about the embarrassed or annoyed looks from them.

"… can we just go see the Hokage now?" Ed asked with another sigh.

"We're almost there." Sasuke informed with a quick glance in their direction.

"We're really not suspicious people…" Al defended weakly, following the shinobi team to the bottom of a staircase outside of a rather large circular shaped building, the character for fire in black on a round surface of white above the doors.

"This is it." Shikamaru pulled one of his hands from his pockets to motion at the building idly.

The small blonde let out a relieved sigh, "Finally. Thanks, everyone." He quickly found his progress up the stairs halted when his face was rammed into the open palm of an Anbu standing guard outside of the entrance, much to the amusement of Naruto and his companions, and much to the foreigner's ire.

"What the hell was that for!" he stepped back, rubbing his slightly aching nose.

"Niisan, of course they wouldn't just let us walk right in…" Al tried to placate his brother with reason.

"Identify yourself and state your business with the Hokage, chibi." The Anbu spoke casually, but with authority. Al let out a soft gasp of sound through the helmet of the armor, reaching and catching his brother around the middle when he tried to leap at the guard, easily holding the squirming body.

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING A MIDGET SO SMALL THAT YOU NEED A TELESCOPE WHEN HE'S RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU!"

"Niisan… he didn't say that…" Al sweatdropped. The shinobi team watching all stared in shock at his little outburst, Naruto doubling over with laughter, finding the whole spectacle highly amusing. 'Naruto-like' was Sasuke's thought on the matter.

The petite blonde finally stopped fuming, panting at his own outburst. Giving the Anbu a rather nasty look, he jerked the pocket watch with the presidential seal of Amestris on it from his pocket, shoving it in the masked man's face. "I'm State Alchemist Elric Edward! The ambassador for the General of Amestris!"

Shikamaru's eyes widened slightly, along with the rest of his team. This is the ambassador?

The ambassador is a kid…? Lee blinked in wonder.

Looking down at the watch so rudely shoved into his face, the Anbu spoke calmly, "We'll need more proof than a watch you could have easily stolen."

Edward nearly fell over from shock, a vein ticking in his forehead at the man's audacity.

"Just transmute something, Niisan." Al nudged gently, ever the voice of reason.

"Oh, I'll transmute something alright." Ed grumbled, muttering increasingly nasty things under his breath.

"Niisan!" Al chided, "We've been lost in the woods for a long time…" he said in apology to the Anbu guard.

Acting as if he'd not heard his brother, Ed continued to fume, blaming the Colonel who passed the orders on to him for their misfortune, despite the fact that they had come from the Fuhrer, King Bradley, himself. "I got lost, I'm hungry, I'm tired, and I get called a super midget. I'm gonna wring Mustang's neck when we get back."

Naruto elbowed Shikamaru, grinning, "Hehehe, this guy's funny."

"He reminds me of you."

The grin slowly dropped from Naruto's face, "…oi."

Edward slipped the watch back into the pocket of his snug leather pants, clapping his hands together. Placing them on the ground at the Anbu's feet, he caught the man off guard as the ground stretched out from its normal position, wrapping up and around him in the form of a crude cage in mere seconds. The speed and unexpected action of the stairway shocked the highly trained shinobi just long enough to prevent him from using kawarimi and escaping. "There. I transmuted something." He snapped, stomping up the stairs past the now caged man. His irritation added enough fuel to his fire – and his rudeness – to have done something quite so un-ambassador-like to the guard.

"OI!" the Anbu shouted at him, but refrained from calling out to the other guards to prevent him from entering the building, since he did prove who he said he was, glaring angrily after the small form.

"Niisan!" Al shouted after him, quickly pulling a piece of chalk from the pouch on his metal thigh, drawing an array on the ground to revert the cage into the stairs it had originally been, bowing to the angry guard in apology before running after his brother. "Gomen nasai!"

"…and that's no genjutsu." Shikamaru said simply, staring in shock with his team and friends, none of them having seen anything quite like that before.

"Yeah… I think I want to pay Tsunade-baachan a visit… bye!" Naruto gave them a quick wave before running past the Anbu after Ed and Al, leaving them behind.

"Che… nosey baka." Sasuke rolled his eyes before heading off with what was left of their team.

Al looked down at his brother once he caught up with him, listening to the stream of unpleasant things he'd like to do Mustang taisa, no traces of a diplomatic air about his older brother at the moment at all. "Brother, that wasn't very nice."

"If Mustang wanted nice, he sent the wrong person. I'm not gonna suck up to anyone." Edward groused.

"No one said you had to. But you shouldn't have done that to the guard, you could get us in trouble, brother!" he admonished gently, but firmly.

"Oi! Edward!" Naruto shouted, catching up.

Ed sighed, taking a deep breath and running a hand over his hair to calm himself down, "Yeah, I'm sorry, Al…" he raised his eyes to the taller shinobi that had just run up beside them, "Hn?"

Naruto raised a hand in greeting, grinning widely, excitement clear in his expression, "That was SUPER cool! How'd you do that? Is it really science, like Shikamaru said? Nothing to do with chakra or genjutsu?"

Blinking at all the questions, Ed stared at him for a moment before grinning, "Yeah, it's just science. Don't really know much about chakra or illusions. Just chemical compounds and the makeup of them and all."

"Sounds complicated to me…" Naruto said, scratching his head, "Sure looks similar to jutsu though. So, what are you here to see Tsunade-baachan for?"

Ed shook his head, "Gomen, that's between me and the Hokage."

Naruto shrugged as if he could care less about that, "Meh, she'll probably tell me anyway."

"That's up to her I guess." He said with a chuckle, "Maybe if I get some time before we leave, I could show you a bit more on transmutation."

"That'd be great! It looks really interesting." The shinobi said enthusiastically.

"It's very hard, but Niisan's very good at it." Al added proudly.

Ed grinned up at his brother, "We'll see you later.. um.. what's your name?" He asked, looking up at the other blonde.

"Uzumaki Naruto, Konoha chuunin and future Hokage." was the grinning reply.

Chuckling, Edward turned and started down the hall, "I'll try to remember that." he stated, simply lifting his hand in lieu of a farewell as he walked away.

"Tell Tsunade-baachan I said hi!" Naruto waved in return before heading off in the opposite direction.

Edward glanced at the plainly colored walls and doors before realizing he was unsure as to where exactly the Hokage's office was, scratching his head and giving Al a sheepish look. Almost seeming to roll his eyes, the younger Elric sighed, stopping to ask a passing woman, carrying of all things… a pig, the way to their destination, bowing in thanks when she directed them to a nearby door. Ed stared at the wide double doors for a moment before raising a hand and knocking to gain entry. He took a breath and pushed down on the handle once he heard a feminine voice tell him to come inside.

"Be respectful, Niisan…" Al whispered quietly before following him into the interior of the room.

Edward nodded his promise to his little brother, pausing slightly in his stride, surprised at seeing such a young woman sitting behind the large wooden desk at the other side of the room. He recovered almost immediately, striding across the room to stand opposite the beautiful leader. "Hokage-sama?"

Tsunade arched an eyebrow at the young man in front of her, glancing briefly at the tall suit of armor standing at his back. "Yes? And you are…?" It was obvious in her expression that she had her suspicions, but was going to wait until they introduced themselves.

Remembering the directions that he had been given from his superior officer, Edward bowed respectfully before speaking. "Hagane no Renkinjutsushi, Elric Edward, ma'am."

"That's what I thought. So, you're the ambassador from Amestris. Welcome to Konohagakure." Tsunade welcomed them with a slight nod of her head. "And you are?" she asked with another look at the metal suit towering over the blonde boy.

"E-Elric Alphonse, Hokage-sama. Edward's ototo." He stammered cutely, bowing as well, the long strands of artificial hair on the top of the helmet shifting and hanging down over the large metal shoulder.

"…ototo?" she asked with a raised eyebrow, surprised, just as most people were, when they found out that Alphonse was the younger of the two.

Edward waved off her inquisitive expression, "Er, long story."

Tsunade sat back, still curious, but refraining from asking further, knowing there were more important things at hand. "Yes, of course. Would you feel more comfortable discussing the situation in your native tongue?"

"Japanese is fine, ma'am. My brother and I are fluent in it and many other languages due to the amount of researching our jobs require." He assured her, taking the suitcase from his brother – since it housed the documents needed for the proceeding talks of alliances – and sitting down in one of the chairs across from the woman who's demeanor seemed to demand respect.

Joining the other alchemist, Al clanked down – albeit very carefully – onto the chair next to him to watch the proceedings between the two. Embarrassment filled him when Edward tossed protocol out the window and chose to take the talks into his own hands, seeing for himself whether or not they were worth having an alliance with, and likely why they had chosen the impetuous boy to be the ambassador in the first place. Sometimes he even wondered how they could be related, but never let his mind wander in those thoughts for long, brother was brother and Al was Al, after all. That's what made them unique.

Starting, Al looked away from the window he'd been staring through for the last few hours, watching the birds outside, when Ed thunked the suitcase on the desk to pop it open and pull out the documents to hand to the Hokage. "Just sign these. They already carry the signature of the Fuhrer of Amestris."

Tsunade glanced briefly over the papers that summarized what the two had just spoken of which detailed an exchange of knowledge and an alliance in case of a war in which either were overwhelmed, before pulling out a pen and scrawling her signature across the proper lines. Flipping through the pages, she slid a few loose papers back across to the young man seated before her, pointing with a long fingernail, "There's a few places for you to sign as well, Elric-san."

"Eh?" Ed blinked, taking the papers, barely glancing at them before finding the places that the ambassador was to sign. He took the pen handed to him, shifting the papers to accept his left-handed signature straight on the line, passing them back to the Hokage to double check. They were almost free, almost time for them to start the long journey home.

"That looks like all the troublesome paper matters are out of the way." She said, pulling out a piece of paper with an enveloped stapled to it and returning it to him with a faint smile, filing her end of the paperwork in a nearby cabinet. "It's so kind of Amestris and you to volunteer your services to us. It's always good to have allies and learn from one another. I'm sure you'll learn a lot while you're in Konoha, as well."

Services? In Konoha? Say what? A clueless expression crossed over Edward's face as he took the papers and looked them over more thoroughly than he had a moment before, shock coming over his elfin features as he realized he'd just signed over his services to stay for an undetermined amount of time. "Nani!" Recovering slightly from his surprise, he pulled open the attached envelope, recognizing the colonel's defined handwriting, eyes scanning over the single sentence on the page. "… he TRICKED me! AGAIN!" Apparently they wouldn't be going home any time soon after all…

"Oh, no… Niisan…" Al sweatdropped, reading over his brother's shoulder, so to speak. How typical of his brother to let something like this slip past him. He may have been a genius, but he could be so dense sometimes.

Tsunade raised an eyebrow at his sudden outburst, asking despite already having pieced the clues together. "What's the matter?"

Immediately looking embarrassed at his sudden shout, Edward stammered out, "B-bitsuni.." His eyes moved back down to the paper, re-reading it: 'You should really learn to read before you sign, little dog of the military. Col. Roy Mustang'

Leaning back in her chair, the Hokage steepled her fingers in front of her, elbows resting on the arms of the chair. "We'll have to find a place for you to stay, but I'm sure one of our shinobi would be more than willing to accommodate you. I'm sure it would be more conducive to everything instead of a hotel or the like."

"H-hai.." he nodded, still flabbergasted by the sudden turn of events, against his favor he felt. Damn that colonel.

"Daijoubu, Edward-san. Konoha's a nice place to live." Tsunade gave him a reassuring smile, leaning to pat him on the arm. Her sharp mind, of course, did not miss the fact that this was his first time hearing of his relocation here. She only hoped that it would not affect his ability to teach her shinobi the alchemy owed by the treaty. Looking at the appendage in curiosity, she ignored the flush that came over his face at her reassurance. "Your arm…"

He blinked at her sudden interest in his arm, realizing after a moment that she must have felt the hardness of the automail under the cloth instead of the soft give of flesh. "Huh? Oh.. heh…" he murmured, rubbing the back of his neck.

Oh no, I wonder if they even know what automail is? Al worried in his head, unconsciously wringing his hands in his metal lap.

"The feel of it. May I see?" she asked, her tone having changed to that of a doctor, giving Ed a sense of relief that he couldn't explain.

"Ano, h-hai." Standing briefly, he shrugged off his jacket. Pulling off the small white glove, he then pushed up the white trimmed black sleeve of his over shirt, holding out what was visible of the metal limb across the desk towards her.

Surprise, but not shock came over her face at the sight, "Automail! I thought so!" Taking his metal hand with her own slender fingers she examined it thoughtfully, asking him to move his fingers and such to check his range of motion with the artificial limb, just like a doctor would. "I haven't seen automail in years. And this is just incredible work, it seems a virtual duplicate of a normal arm in range of motion and flexibility. Thank you." Tsunade finished, letting him have his arm back, so to speak.

"Heh, my mechanic really knows what she's doing." Ed chuckled softly, pulling his sleeve back down before tapping his left knee, the metal on metal sound obvious. "They don't use automail in this part of the world?" he asked, slipping his glove back over his hand to cover the falseness of it.

Tsunade shook her head a negative, "No, not really, only in very remote areas. You'd better keep very good care of yours while you're here. I'm a skilled medical nin, but I'm afraid I'm not a very good mechanic."

Al giggled softly, "I thought you had the manner of a doctor."

"Very observant of you, Alphonse." She smiled at him approvingly, causing him to shift, and likely blush by his mannerisms, but it was hidden by the armor.

Ed grinned at Al's embarrassment before smiling at the leader of Konoha, "My automail is built well, so I shouldn't have any troubles." He said assuredly.

"That's good to know." Tsunade shifted in her chair, looking between them, "So, have you met any of our Shinobi yet?"

"A few," Edward nodded, "they helped us here. We were attacked by a few.. Sound nin I believe they called them, and got lost. That's why we were late in arriving. One of the ones we met was named Naruto, he told me to tell you 'hi' for him."

Her tone quickly changed to one of strict business. "Sound nin? Thank you for telling me that."

"Hai. I thought I recalled Mustang mentioning them. Are they the ones that have been causing the problems here?" Ed inquired, thoughtfully.

Tsunade nodded in confirmation, "Hai, to say the least. But you needn't worry about it at the moment." She dismissed it for now, returning to their earlier conversation, "Naruto. So you've met our resident troublemaker and aspiring Hokage already. That means the team you met must have been his."

"Yeah, he kept claiming repeatedly he was going to be the next Hokage." He chuckled.

"And he will be I think." The Hokage commented.

"Is he your son?" Al asked, remembering the fact that Naruto had called her 'baasan' but could not see the young woman in front of him as being a grandmother of someone their own age. His question caused her to laugh, and he to stammer out, "I thought maybe… because you both have blonde hair… Gomen nasai." Yet again he managed to look embarrassed.

"No, no!" she chuckled, "Maa maa, daijoubu. We're not related."

"Yeah, he was really interested in the transmutation I did earlier." The braided blonde informed, "Guess I'll have plenty of time to show him."

"Oh, I'm sure he'd love that. Hmm, let's see, I need to find you two a place to stay. Here, take these with you," Tsunade ordered, pulling out two long term I.D. cards for them to wear to keep from being arrested, handing them to the two brothers. "and wander around Konoha as you like. Come back here around five-ish and I'll have something arranged. And when you see Naruto, tell him to come see me ASAP, ne?" she finished up after a glance at the clock, not explaining why she thought that they would definitely see him again.

Taking his pass, he looked down at it with a nod, "Hai, Hokage-sama." Ed smiled, standing, offering a hand for her to shake.

Tsunade took it with a smile, "I hope you enjoy Konoha Edward-san, Alphonse-san."

"I'm sure we will." He glanced over at his younger brother, sensing his distress at the fact that he really had no place to put the small I.D. card. Looking over the woman's desk, he spotted a simple paper clip, and reached out for it. "May I?"

"Of course."

Putting his hands together, he picked it up, changing into a basic hinged clip before taking Al's card and hooking them together, snapping it on the cloth hanging at the armor's waist. "There you go, Al." Ed smiled up at his brother reassuringly.

"Arigatou, Niisan." Al returned the smile gratefully.

A fairly impressed look came over the leader's face, "Alchemy is so useful."

"Heh…" Ed rubbed the back of his neck before turning to Alphonse, "Come on, Al, let's check out this place."

"Oh!" the Hokage's exclamation caused the two Elrics to turn and face her inquisitively, "Be sure to stop at the central reception area on the first floor. You can exchange your money for yen there."

"Ah, arigatou, I'd completely forgotten about that. We'll be sure to stop there." Ed gave a short bow before slipping out the large wooden doors.

"Sayonara, Hokage-sama!" Al said brightly, waving to her before clunking along after Ed's retreating form.

Passing through the corridors they'd been through a few hours previously, the two brothers easily made their way through the winding hallways to the reception-style area on the first floor that the Hokage had told them about moments earlier. The female clerk smiled brightly at the two, exchanging their Euros for Yen, cheerfully passing the paper notes back to the elder brother. A short explanation on the difference of the amounts followed, the Elrics easily memorizing and filing away the rates in their minds. With a bow and a thank you, Edward tucked half of the money into his wallet, and the rest into suitcase he'd pulled the bills from to perform the exchange. Nodding to Al, they strode across the rest of the first floor to the entrance, Ed putting up a hand as they stepped outside of the final doors to the outside, blocking out the bright sunlight from his eyes. He sighed heavily, starting down the steps to the pathway below, "I can't believe Mustang tricked me like that…"

"You really should read everything you sign carefully, brother." Alphonse admonished gently, not wanting to add to his brother's ire by lecturing him. He found no surprise at all at such a turn of events; there had been hints. Namely the Colonel asking Al to make sure Ed took enough and kept well. The older man usually showed concern over them both, but this time had been different somehow. Of course it had been different, they were going halfway around the world to a country they'd never been to for an indeterminate amount of time. All prior missions the two brothers had been on lasted sometimes months at a time, but never outside of their native country, let alone continent for that matter.

"I know, I know. I probably woulda agreed to stay if he'd just asked. Instead he has to be all sneaky-like. As usual. I think he does it for fun." was the flat reply. As usual…

Al giggled softly at his ranting, looking up at the architecture surrounding them as they walked. The buildings stretching above them in varying stories, the styles, colors and materials a stark difference to the cool grey stone used for many of the structures in Central City. All around them, people moved about their daily lives, the overall atmosphere more vibrant and lively, even the air itself seeming clearer and lighter. The scale of the city was on par with Central, perhaps even larger, but there was something different about this foreign city that set it apart.

The thought that Konoha reminded Al of their home town of Riesembul was just crossing his mind when he had quite the start as Naruto swung down in front of them, hanging upside down from a beam between two buildings. "Wah!"

Naruto grinned brightly, "Heya!"

Edward stared at the shinobi, slowly recovering from the sudden surprise arrival, having had a similar reaction as his brother at seeing the young man apparently defying gravity by crouching on the underside, only one hand on the beam itself. "……how are you doing that?"

"Wha? Hangin' upside down?" He let go of the wood, yet still remained crouched, feet planted firmly on the beam when he should have been cracking his skull on the ground below. "Lotsa chakra control. Hehe, look!"

'Standing up', he walked along the beam as if he wasn't hanging on underneath before swirling around 'til he was right side up, crouching once more. "That's simple stuff." He finished with a kitsune grin and a thumbs-up.

"So, that's what you can do with chakra? I think I might have to bug you for some lessons on that." a slightly wicked grin came over Ed's face, clearly plotting ways to use such an ability, none of them likely pleasant.

"I dunno," Naruto rubbed the back of his neck, "I don't think I'd be a very good teacher. Took me a week to get that down, and a year and a half to REALLY perfect it. Otherwise you land on your head." He laughed before jumping down into the street next to them. "Not to mention we're not supposed to share jutsu knowledge with outsiders."

Al shifted, looking down at him, his tone being that of approval, "That's amazing."

"Hmm.." Ed murmured thoughtfully, his thoughts causing Naruto's comment on not sharing jutsu to fly by and bounce off his oblivious skull. I think I could learn it. "Oh, yeah!" He looked back up, putting a fist down into his upturned palm, "The Hokage said she wanted to see you, Naruto-san."

Naruto stuck out his tongue at the polite title added to his name, "Bleh! Just call me Naruto! She did? Say what about?"

He shook his head, "No, just that she wanted to see you ASAP."

"Ooh, ASAP? That's usually real good or real bad. Hmm, 'kay, I better go then, but I'll pop back up later. You gonna be staying in Konoha for a while?"

"Yup, for a long while probably. I've been put into service to help get things started here for a while." Ed informed, actually keeping a lid on his complaints, his earlier ire at the semi-permanent relocation dissipating at what he had just seen Naruto do. Perhaps staying in this place might have some benefits after all.

"Really? Awesome! I'll catch up with you later then." Naruto chirped before vanishing over the roof tops above, only to reappear just as quickly, "Wait, you two got a place to stay?"

Edward looked up at him, "Not yet, the Hokage was looking into that. Told us to come back in a while."

"Ah, okay, she'll take care a things then. Always does. Ja ne!" the shinobi disappeared with a quick wave.

Glancing around, Ed finally took a moment to examine their surroundings, watching a few citizens with hitai-ate in various places on their clothing walk past. Surprisingly, most of the people seemed to be ordinary civilians, not everyone here was of the shinobi class? "Guess we'd better get to know it, ne, Al? Since it's gonna be home for a while."

"It seems like a nice place. I wonder where we'll be staying." The younger mused as they made their way around the central part of the village.

"Dunno, gonna have a hard time explaining why you don't eat though."

"It'll be okay, brother." Al said with a faint sweatdrop.

A thoughtful expression crossed over Ed's face briefly, "Yeah… I wonder how hard that chakra manipulation stuff is?"

"It would probably be as hard for us to learn as it's going to be for us to teach them alchemy." He replied, chuckling softly. His brother could have such a one-track mind sometimes.

"I don't know, seems like it might be easier for us." The braided brother tapped his chin in thought, "I think we have the more complicated end." Edwards's ego could be quite large on occasion, ever assuming he could master anything and do everything. But those factors were likely a part of the source that fueled his insatiable thirst for knowledge, and great motivation for the brother's quest.

Al sounded thoughtful, "Well, we could always ask Naruto. He seems friendly enough. Actually, he makes me think of you a bit, brother."

Ed arched a brow at that, "Eh? Me? Hn…"

Feeling a change of subject was in order before Ed thought too much on his simple comment and became insulted for no reason, Al mused, "I wonder how long we'll be staying…"

"No telling," he shrugged, "I think Mustang just wanted us out of the way for a while and volunteered us, forget that crap about it being a direct order from King Bradley."

"Do you really think so?" Al asked softly, knowing his brother's tendency to over-exaggerate. Especially where the dark-haired Colonel was involved; the man knew exactly what buttons to push to set the braided alchemist off, this much was true, but purposefully sending them all the way to Konoha for something so trivial? Al wanted to go with his gut that the older man was as upset with Ed's new assignment as much as his brother. Just a feeling.

"He says I irritate him too much." Ed sulked, crossing his arms, "So yeah, I think so. I think he just hates that I bring up perfectly valid points that he can't answer."

Al giggled at that, "Maybe so."

Sighing again, Edward glanced around, "This place reminds me of a very large Riesembul… Guess I've just gotten used to Central."

"Maybe we should look at this as a kind of vacation, brother." Alphonse suggested, "After all we've been through, maybe we should take a little time to relax. But, at the same time, we might learn a lot while we're here that can help us later!"

"True, especially that chakra stuff." The blonde said with a gleam in his eyes, "Imagine mixing the things you could do with that with alchemy."

Al nodded in agreement, "It's definitely worth trying to learn."

"Definitely. Too bad we didn't bring any of our alchemy books." He sighed, "It would have been a useful chance to brush up on some things. Not to mention, we could use them for this teaching stuff."

"Yeah, and I doubt we could find any here…" Alphonse realized that was why the colonel had mentioned bringing extra books. Just like his brother, neither man new how to flat out tell anyone anything, they both liked dancing around the truth too much. It got exasperating and tiresome rather quickly. He refrained from telling his brother these things, however, knowing he would only get angry with him for comparing them both, and at Mustang for not telling them everything, again.

"Highly doubtful, that's for sure. These people don't seem to know much of alchemy at all, which means we'll be starting from scratch with them."

"It does seem that way." Al agreed, pausing in his stride when his brother did, watching the short young man sniff at the air. "Brother?"

A wide grin stretched over his face, and Al almost imagined he could see hearts floating above his older brother's head. "Food. I smell food." Taking off at a jog, Ed forced Al to clank hurriedly behind him to catch up with the boy's bloodhound-like nose. He all but skidded to a stop outside of an open noodle house, basking in the delicious smells and odors drifting on the air. His hunger levels felt off the chart to him just then, his stomach reminding him loudly of the lack of proper food during the long trek through the forest, the alchemist having been forced to transmute less than adequate food to save time on hunting.

"If you had been willing to take more time coming here, we could have done better hunting, brother." The armor chided.

Ed stuck his tongue out at him before slipping under the hanging letters over the door, plopping down on one of the stools at the wooden bar. "We were late as it is. And the last thing I wanted to hear is more snide remarks from Mustang." He quickly glanced over the menu, ordering a large bowl of miso ramen, fidgeting impatiently, waiting for it to be cooked.

After refusing to give an order, or even accept the glass of water the cook offered, Al sat quietly, musing over simple questions. I can't even remember what water tastes like… Or what it felt like to even be hungry… A quick glance at his brother assured him that he wouldn't receive the normal sympathetic look Ed always seemed to give at the right time, the elder's face buried behind the bowl of noodles he was slopping up with great enthusiasm. Taking a moment to laugh at his eagerness, Alphonse turned his attention the people walking around outside. Gaining more than a few glances for his bulky armor, seeing as they were in a village known for stealth, he turned back around to the counter, feeling self-conscious. (Well, that and the fact that no one had seen anyone take down a bowl of ramen like that besides Naruto.)

Sighing happily, Ed placed the second bowl down on the counter, "Haaaaaa, I was so hungry!"

Al laughed at him jovially, "I could tell!"

"Transmuted food is only good for so long, you know." Edward laughed in return, pulling a few bills from his wallet and pushing them across at the man behind the counter.

"Like I said, if we had just stopped long enough to trap some rabbits… But it doesn't matter."

Ed stood with a stretch, wondering what time it was, "Meh. Think he we should." He paused, shaking his head to clear it, laughing. "Wow, that came out weird. Think we should head back to the Hokage's yet?"

Al shrugged noisily, "I don't know. What time is it?"

Reaching into his pocket, he slipped the symbol of his rank out, clicking the top to open it and look at the face. "'Bout 4:30."

"I guess it couldn't hurt to head back now." He smiled.

"Yeah," Ed stretched again as they walked along, "it'll be nice to have a place to crash, too. I'm exhausted."

"It has been a long day…" Alphonse agreed, despite being unable to even feel tired, hardly remembering the familiar sensation after so many years trapped bodiless in the armor. Turning his gaze from the shining sky above, he looked down at his older brother, seeing him lost deep in thought. "Brother, is something bothering you?"

"Just thinking about that chakra thing Naruto did." The young man muttered, hands stuffed deep in his pockets, his thinking more like dwelling. "I wonder if they have any books on it here."

Al shifted Ed's suitcase from one large hand to the other to avoid bumping another pedestrian. "Probably so, we can ask. Though Naruto did say that they weren't allowed to teach foreigners their jutsu."

Ed continued, almost as if he'd not heard Al speak, as he did quite often, "Also, since chakra is the body's energy, I wonder if knowing about it might help us on our quest…"

"That's a very good point, brother." Al felt it best to go along with the conversation; his brother never seemed to listen to things he didn't want to hear.

The Hokage's office soon loomed ahead of them, the brothers choosing to sit on the bottom most steps to relax for the time being. A great shadow drifted over them, cast down by the cottony clouds floating above. Pointing out this and that, they discussed the many differences and similarities in the foreign country, enjoying the chance to wind down after such a stressful week. So occupied were they in their conversation and people watching that they missed the sound of footsteps behind them 'til they both felt arms tossed around their necks and shoulders.

"Edo! Aru!" Naruto chirped, startling them both.

"Naruto-kun, have you been talking to the Hokage this whole time?" Ed asked, eyes wide.

"Yup, so?" he tilted his head to the side.

Edward shook his head, "Just wondering. Does she want to see us yet?"

"Nah, don't need to, I'm messenger boy and solution all in one." was the catty grinned reply.

"What do you mean? She find a place for us to stay then?" he inquired with an arched brow.

"Yup! You two are bunkin' with me!" Naruto informed cheerfully.

Ed blinked, "Honto ka?"

"Honto ni! I live by myself, so it's no prob' at all." He assured them.

"That's very generous of you, Naruto-san." Al inclined his head in a bow of thanks.

"Thanks, this is a bit of a relief." Ed grinned, "At least we've already met who we're staying with, ne, Al? We could have ended up with mask man over there that I'm sure is probably glaring at me for that stunt earlier."

"Bleh, no 'san'." Naruto made a face at Al before laughing at Ed's comment, "He probably is."

Standing, Ed clapped a hand on Naruto's shoulder, "And this'll give us time to discuss our…mutual interests."

Naruto lifted a finger with a grin, "If you were thinking of you telling me about alchemy and me telling you about chakra, then I'd say we're on the same page, Edo! Tsunade-baachan told me about the whole treaty thing."

A mildly wicked grin answered him back, "Most definitely." Smiling down over his brother and their new acquaintance, Al felt pleasure at the fact that they would be staying with someone they already knew they'd probably like.

"So, you want me to show you where I live, or did ya want to soak in more of Konoha?" he asked, locking his hands behind his head.

"Soaked in enough for the moment. Not to mention we've been walking for days. Relaxation sounds kind of nice at the moment." Edward sighed, scratching under his braid, Al nodding in agreement next to him.

Hopping down the last few steps, instead of taking to the roofs like Ed half expected him to, Naruto started strolling down the street like a normal person. "Sure thing! This way."

"So, what kind of training do you shinobi do?" the petite blonde inquired. Wonder if he'd be a fun sparring partner for me and Al?

Naruto thought for a moment, "Uhh, well, all kinds of stuff. Since I'm a chuunin, the training I do is pretty much up to me, but genin have to do basic stuff and we all get assigned missions periodically. The ranks are academy student, genin, chuunin, jounin, and the Hokage. Course there can only be one Hokage at a time. Hmmm, oh yeah, and there's the Anbu! The masked guy that tried to stop you from going inside was one. They're sort of like our police. They track down rogue shinobi, protect people, assassinate enemies if need be, stuff like that. I think Anbu fits in somewhere around chuunin and jounin…never been quite sure about that." he finished with a shrug.

Al spoke, comparing it to the only thing he could think of. "It sounds like army ranks."

"Yeah, it does, doesn't it?" Ed agreed with a nod of his head.

"Well, shinobi do the fighting for the village, and protect the normal citizens, so we sorta are. Never thought about it that way before, though." Naruto said in a thoughtful tone.

"So you guys go to school to learn this stuff then?" Edward asked.

Naruto nodded, "Yup, every shinobi from genin up was an academy student to start off with. It's really hard at first, but most anybody can get the hang of it."

Edward nodded as he listened, looking the young man that couldn't be any older than himself up and down, "So are there any age limits, or what?"

"On going to the academy?" Naruto asked, misunderstanding him, "Man, I can teach you the crap I learned in the academy. 'Sides, even if you wanted to attend, I dunno if they'd let you in because you're not from Konoha."

"Not quite what I meant." Ed corrected, "I mean is there an age limit for the different ranks? Do you have to be a certain age to get moved on to the next or whatever?"

"Oh! Nah, not at all. If you're really talented, you can be an Anbu or jounin when you're like twelve." Naruto explained with a casual wave of a tanned hand.

"That's a bit different than the military, ne, Al?" Ed said, looking up at his silent brother, wanting to include the quiet young man in the conversation as well.

Al started at suddenly being addressed since he had been listening to their conversation, but not having much to add, "Hai, but I'm sure a lot of things are different here."

"Yeah," Ed agreed, "so are there other things you can do with chakra? Other than what you did earlier, I mean."

"Oh, LOTSA stuff! Wanna see my favorite?" he paused on his ascent of a nondescript staircase outside of an equally plain looking building.

Al nodded, causing the armor to clank, "Why not?"

Naruto chuckled, "Well, I've got two favorites, but I'll do the one that doesn't give guys a nosebleed." He nodded in a factual manner.

Ed raised an eyebrow at that, slowly. "…a nosebleed."

Grinning, Naruto put his hands together in a seal. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Appearing before the stunned Elrics were five identical copies of the young shinobi, all grinning, and all speaking at once. "Pretty cool, huh?"

"Ar-are they all real?" Ed gaped in shock, moving up the stairs a little closer to one of the clones.

"Yup!" the real Naruto said proudly, at the front of the little troupe.

"Touch me." one of the copies suggested, both brothers following this advice, tapping them on the shoulder in amazement.

"And they think on their own?" Ed inquired, looking one over like one would with a foreign device.

"Okay, stop poking me already." The clone that Al had chosen to poke said flatly, swatting at the overly large hand.

"Hehe, yeah, but they all think like me, and know what I'm thinking. It's hard to explain." Naruto giggled, answering Ed's question.

Walking around one with his chin in his hand, another question came to the elder Elric, "Are they permanent?"

"Until I will them to go away, or they get hurt enough that it would get close to causing me to pass out or die, or when I get hurt enough to break my control. Other than that, they'd probably hang around as long as I wanted. It takes a certain amount of chakra to make each copy. Five is easy, I can do about one thousand if I'm pull on ALL of my chakra. But that's when I'm super pissed, and for life and death stuff." Naruto explained further, grinning.

Ed nodded, impressed, "A thousand? Cool…do they keep your original strength?"

Naruto shook his head a negative, "Nope, only part of it. I can make 'em stronger, but the stronger I make each one, the more chakra it uses up and the weaker I get. They're more of a strategy and intimidation thing. Also good for letting them take all the damage while I make a quick escape, or need time to think." Naruto released the jutsu after the clones waved to their audience, the figures disappearing into small clouds of smoke that quickly vanished in the light breeze.

"That makes sense. Any time you divide something up multiple times, it gets smaller." Edward reasoned, feeling rather foolish that he hadn't thought about that very fact.

"Yup!" he grinned.

"That's an impressive technique." Alphonse admitted, and would likely have been smiling, had there been a face behind the armor to smile with.

Naruto grinned happily, always eager to impress people with his abilities. "Thanks. Only I know how ta do it. Well, Kakashi-sensei probably does from SEEING me do it, sharingan and all, but, he don't count."

"Sharingan?" the braided blonde inquired, curiously.

"Whole nother subject." Naruto chuckled.

Alphonse reached down, patting his brother on the shoulder lightly, "We have lots of time, Niisan."

"Yup!" Naruto stopped outside of a door and slipped a key into the lock. Pulling the door open, he turned to his guests. "Well, this is my place. Um, like I said, I live alone, so it's a mess." He stooped to pick up dirty clothes, training equipment and various scrolls as he walked in, dumping them off against another wall to clear a path for them.

Ed shrugged, waving off his concerns. "Eh, don't worry about it too much. It's just me and Al, so we're used to it."

"The one time I have company, I gotta clean up at least. I've never had anybody live with me, so I've kinda gotten used to just throwing stuff wherever. I gotta make FLOOR space at least." He grunted, kicking more articles into a big pile in a corner.

"It's really okay, Naruto." Al smiled.

Chuckling, Ed reached down to pick up an empty ramen cup from the floor. "Here, let us help."

"No, no!" Naruto cried, snatching it out of his hand, "You're guests, you don't have to help!"

"We don't mind…" Al spoke softly as his brother sweatdropped at having the cup vanish from his hand.

"I'm used to taking care of my own stuff. You can't go an' spoil me now, I'll be fucked up for the rest of my life!" Naruto joked with his trademark catty grin, "Go get something to drink outta the fridge or something."

Edward laughed, heading for the small fridge against the wall near the sink, "Hai, hai. So, do you learn any of your jutsu from books?"

Naruto continued to pick up more discarded ramen cups, clothes, weapons and scrolls littering the small apartment. Piling them in the crook of one arm against his chest, even having to use his chin to keep them from toppling from his grip, he spoke, "Yup! Well, scrolls more than books. Learned Kage Bunshin no Jutsu from a big forbidden scroll. Heh, that's why nobody else knows how to do it. It's one of the jutsu they don't want anybody to get a hold of because of how powerful they are."

Straightening up after leaning over to pull out a canned drink from the fridge, Ed looked over at Naruto in interest. "Then how did you get a hold of it?"

"A teacher told me where it was, and I went and stole it. I wanted to know a jutsu that would impress people. I wanted to be acknowledged." He explained, not even pausing in his picking up. "Didn't know the lousy teacher only wanted me to steal it so HE could get it. He didn't though, but because I learned it, I graduated from the academy!"

"Did you have trouble up to that point or something?" the elder Elric asked with a raised eyebrow.

Alphonse stood to the side, listening to Naruto speak, looking more like an oversized decoration with how still he stood. It seems like Naruto has as many stories as we do.

"Yup. The final test to pass ended up being the one I was the worst at: creating a realistic illusionary copy of yourself. Bunshin no jutsu" The shinobi said while shoving an odd looking, stuffed punching bag into a side room. "Mine always looked dead or really bad hung over and it was always see through. But when Iruka-sensei saw me make over a hundred SOLID copies of myself, he let me pass. Heh, even gave me his hitai-ate instead of one of the new ones given at the academy to the other graduates!"

"At least you got to pass, I'm sure that would have sucked to have not." Edward said, sitting down on the edge of the single unmade bed in the room.

"Wouldn't have been the first year that I failed." Naruto shrugged, uncaringly. "Failed the chuunin exam the first time around, too. Only Shikamaru passed out of everyone. But he's like, giga smart."

Ed had to laugh at his term to describe the young man, "Giga smart, huh? I'd like to meet him."

Naruto grinned, "Ya already did. The guy on my team with his hands in his pockets and his hair up in a high pony tail. Has this sort of bored expression on his face all the time." He paused to immitate him for a moment, causing Alphonse to laugh at the expression. "He's our team leader."

"Ah, the one that kept looking at us like were gonna turn around and start attacking you guys." Ed chuckled, proving with that simple sentence that while he was talking with his brother and Naruto on the way to the village, he had been paying attention to his surroundings.

Naruto dumped some items into the trash bin by the counter in his little kitchenette, "Yeah, him. Don't mind that, he's always got EVERY scenario played out in his head like five hundred steps in every direction of what could happen. And I'm not joking."

"Seriously?" Ed asked, a highly intrigued expression coming over his round face.

"Yup. And don't EVEN try to play a round of go or shogi with him, he'll whoop your ass in two moves. He's a genius, but he's super lazy. If he could, he'd lay around all day and lookit the clouds. He only became a shinobi because he was bored. Don't get me wrong though, he's a GREAT shinobi and loves it. But that's just how smart he is."

Al laughed in amusement along with his brother at Naruto's words, "That is kind of funny."

"Who knows," Ed said with a grin, taking a sip of the drink in his hand, "maybe I might challenge him to a game of shogi."

"…I wouldn't suggest it unless ya like being beat. But, your call." Naruto shrugged, unable to conceive of anyone with half a brain playing Shikamaru willingly.

"Nothin' wrong with getting beat in a fair game." Edward shrugged in return.

Naruto dusted off his hands on his dark pants, "I dunno if playing against Shikamaru without a HEAVY handicap could be called fair… Well, that's about as clean as my house gets. Now, what'd I do with the extra futon…" he mused aloud, kneeling down to peer in the storage space beneath his bed.

Ed wrinkled his nose in distaste, "Handicaps are no fun."

"'F you say so…" Naruto muttered disbelievingly, pulling the spare futon out and glancing around. "Let's see, this'd go best over here probably." He continued to mumble to himself, standing and pushing his small table out of the direct center of the room so he could lay the futon a few feet down from parallel to his own bed. "Need another one though since there's two a ya.."

"It's alright, I don't need a futon." Al told him with a smile in his voice.

Naruto raised an eyebrow, looking him over. "Nu-uh. If anything, you'll need a futon more than your brother once you get outta that armor. It's gotta be heavy."

The two brothers were silent for a moment before Ed spoke up, "…Al.. doesn't take off the armor."

Blinking in a bit of confusion, Naruto asked, "Why not? Are you stuck in it?" he looked up at Al, sympathy in his eyes.

"Y-yeah.." Al stuttered softly.

"It's a long story." Ed offered with a faint shrug.

"Oh, well, we'll have time later." Naruto said, cheerfully dismissing it. "Ya still need two futons though."

Alphonse waved his hands in front of him, as if to fend off the offer. "No, really, it's okay. I don't need one."

Naruto crossed his arms, giving them both a flat look. "Now, come on, just 'cause you're stuck in there don't mean you can't be comfortable."

"Really, Naruto-kun, it's alright." Edward shook his head.

Al nodded his agreement, "Really, I'm perfectly fine."

The shinobi looked between the two for a moment before letting his arms drop to his sides, relenting at their insistence, "If you say so."

Ed chuckled at his reluctance, "We're a strange pair, probably best to just accept it."

"Heh, I ain't exactly a normal guy myself, so I think I know where you're comin' from. No prob." He gave them a brief thumbs-up, "When you're a shinobi, you have to see the hidden meaning within the hidden meaning, and with people, that means if you don't bother to get to know them and accept 'em for who they are, you're not bothering to be a good shinobi."

"That's a good rule of thumb." The young national alchemist chuckled.

"Yup! You can't judge anything by appearance when you're a shinobi, so you gotta actually LOOK and see who a person is. And say 'Yup, that's cool!'" Naruto laughed.

Ed joined in his mirth briefly, Who knows, maybe Al and I can actually tell Naruto about us. One of these days…

Similar thoughts crossed over his younger brother's mind at the ninja's code of ethics. I'm glad we're staying with him, he's a very nice person.

"Talking about looks…This thing is makin' me hot." Naruto griped, taking off his green chuunin vest and tossing it over the back of his chair.

"It is kinda warm in here, now that I think about it." Ed agreed, pulling his red jacket off of his shoulders, glancing around for a coat hook, "Ano…"

"You guys get anything to eat yet?" Naruto asked before blinking at Ed's confusion, "Hn, wha?"

"Where should I put this?" he held up the jacket a little higher.

Naruto shrugged, "Eh, wherever. I don't care"

Edward chuckled, tossing it on the futon the other had laid out for him. "And yeah, we've eaten. At a noodle house across town, I was starving and couldn't wait."

"Aww, man! Ichiraku! I LOVE that place!" Naruto said with a vibrant smile that made his eyes sparkle, sitting down on the bed next to the other blonde, scratching behind an ear.

"Ugh, time differences kill." Ed yawned tiredly.

Naruto tilted his head to the side like a curious puppy, "Time differences?"

"It's the middle of the night in our country right now." Al offered by way of explanation.

"Yeah, what he said." Ed agreed, pointing at his brother.

"Buuuuut… it's only 6:30…" Naruto trailed off, not grasping the concept, a confused kitsune look on his face.

"Ano… See, when you travel the world, the time doesn't stay the same." Ed explained, holding up a gloved hand to the light streaming in the window. "See how on this side the light hits it, but on this side it's dark? It's the same thing with our planet. This is your village." he said, pointing at the illuminated backside of his hand, "It's day time 'cause we're facing the sun. This is Amestris, where we're from, and it's nighttime there." Ed finished, pointing at his darkened palm, "Get it?"

"Damn, never realized the world's that big." Naruto blinked, scratching his head.

"Yup. So that's why we're tired. We're used to the time that our continent is in." Ed yawned again.

"You guys can go to sleep if you want to. I don't mind."

"You sure?" Ed asked, rubbing the back of his neck, "I don't want to be rude."

Naruto shook his head, "Nah, it ain't rude. 'Sides, I had some stuff I wanted to do around Konoha before I turned in anyway, so I won't even be here."

"If you're sure…" Ed reached to his neck, unhooking the clasp of his over shirt, pausing before pulling it off completely. I wonder if he's ever heard of automail like the Hokage?

Naruto watched the large armored brother sit down on the floor next to the futon he'd laid out for the elder, "You sure you don't want a bed, Aru?"

He nodded once again, "I'm fine." Al watched his attention turn from Al's lack of sleeping material to his older brother's arm in fascination.

"Is that…armor?" he asked, peering at Ed's arm curiously.

Ed chuckled, shaking his head, "Heh, nope, automail."

"Automail? What's that?"

"It's…replacement parts I guess you could say." Ed told him with a laugh. "Um, mechanical limbs that are attached to the nerves inside. Moves like a real arm, ne?" he held out his hand, flexing it for him in different directions.

The blonde shinobi's eyes widened, Ed's words sinking in fairly quickly, "Ya mean it's..? You don't have…..? Damn." He scratched the back of his head feeling a bit uncomfortable for staring, pity returning to his eyes. "I didn't know stuff like that EXISTED. That's incredible."

"It's okay." Ed reassured, "I'd show you how it comes off, but uh, that kinda hurts, so yeah, I won't do that. A friend of mine and Al's makes 'em." He shifted, flopping down from Naruto's bed to the futon on the floor. "Not much to look at, but it's better than not being able to walk or do alchemy."

Naruto started to nod then shook his head in a double take, something Ed said having caught his attention. "Wait, walk?"

"Yeah," Ed chuckled with a faint sweatdrop, tapping his left knee before pulling up the cloth of his pant leg to reveal the hard metal underneath, "just the one. My other leg's real."

"Damn." Naruto said again, "I'd ask what happened, but it's rude to let my curiosity wander COMPLETELY unchecked. So, that's good where you come from you can replace limbs like that. That's awesome, if I lost an arm or a leg, I'd be pretty much screwed."

"Well, your Hokage has heard of it. And now that our countries are within an alliance with one another," Ed shrugged, offering up a scenario, "stuff like automail might find its way here. I'm sure it would be useful to you shinobi. After all, no one wants to quit doing something that they love just because they've lost a limb. It's like forcing them to."

Naruto looked pleased at that, "Tsunade-baachan knows about it? Cool, it'd be great if stuff like that came here. Having automail might mess with your chakra though, since it comes from the body. Dunno how that would effect things. Now you've got me all curious to see if I can get you to use chakra considering the automail and all!"

"I guess we'll find out." He grinned, "But where there's a will, there's a way. If you're presented with an obstacle, you just find a way around it. You don't sit and sulk."

"Damn straight!" Naruto said enthusiastically, "That's my ninja way! You fall down, you get right back up!"

Ed smiled, laughing at his exuberance, "I think we're gonna get along great, Naruto-kun."

"Yeah, me too." He gave a wide grin before lowering his voice, looking over at the quiet suit of armor, "Um, is Aru asleep…?"

The armor came to life in that moment, shaking his head, voice cheerful, "No, I'm just listening."

"He does that. A lot." Ed sweatdropped.

Naruto stood, chuckling, "Well, I'm gonna go do my stuff. Feel free to raid the fridge and look around. Ain't nothing secret laying around."

"Got any of those scrolls that you were talking about laying around? That you learn from?" Ed asked, wanting to get a hold of them before the shinobi left.

"Yeah, sure. There's a ton over in that pile, different stuff. But I've still got all the beginners ones stacked in my practice room over there." He informed, pointing at the door he'd shoved some things through earlier, "Look out for the Kakashi dummy, though. You should probably read those. Even if you're real smart, when you're learnin' something, ya gotta start with the basics, ya know?"

"Aa, otherwise you'll miss something important. Arigatou, I think I might have a look at those before resting." Ed grinned up at him.

"Go ahead and have at it." Naruto said, giving them a bit of a wave before disappearing out the door, "Ja ne!" The two brothers watched the door for a moment before the elder stood to wander to the pile of scrolls Naruto had indicated before leaving.

"He seems a lot like you, brother." Al said, watching him poking through the stacks of rolled parchment.

Edward pulled open one of the beginner's scrolls, pouring over it. "I guess he does. We think alike, that's for sure. Though, he does seem a bit…slow. Not saying that's quite a bad thing of cours – oooh, a diagram explaining chakra flow." He trailed off, attention officially off the shinobi and on the skills written across the paper. Grabbing an armful of the book equivalents, he moved back to Al's side, dumping them on the futon for them to read over.

"Perhaps it has to do with this society not being as scientifically minded…" Al said thoughtfully, his mind still on his brother's thoughts of their new friend, even if the elder had moved on, successfully bringing the conversation back on topic for the time being.

"Probably. They seem a bit more spiritual, considering their connections with the body's energy and stuff." He mumbled, eyes flitting over the scroll in his hand.

"Yeah…" Al said softly. Looking over the scroll with him, he found his thoughts about how unlikely it was that he would be able to control chakra, even if his brother and his mechanically enhanced body managed it. Alphonse kept his thoughts to himself however, knowing they would only serve to depress his sibling; not to mention it was no reason not to learn.

"Hmm, a lot of the basics seem to have the same type roots as alchemy. You can't put out more chakra than you have; the more it's divided, the weaker it becomes. Looks like it mainly deals with the conservation and distribution for a lot of it." Ed rambled, taking in the words and concepts in front of him easily.

Al wasn't quite as optimistic, "Everything that seems easy always ends up being hard though."

"Well, I'm not saying it would be easy. Though, who knows, maybe I might could have a knack for it like alchemy. I mean, we taught ourselves most of that, after all. Not to mention, with my mechanical limbs, I'd have to learn to focus it differently than normal, since I don't have as many of those chakra openings." He said, contradicting himself along the way on the difficulty of the subject.

"But, since you can feel your arm and leg, and they're connect to your nerves to make your limbs work, doesn't the energy of your body still flow through them? Because they're powered by the same energy as the rest of your body, they're just made up of different materials." Al reasoned, bringing a whole new light to their conversation.

Ed looked thoughtful at that, "You might be right, the chakra could escape through the joints and gears more than likely. Good reasoning, Al." He smiled at him.

"Thank you, brother." Al thanked, feeling pride at the compliment given to him by the brother he held so dear. He leaned closer to Edward, half reading over his shoulder before each scroll was passed his way, all thoughts of sleep having passed from the elder's mind at the sudden influx of information. Considering the way the brothers threw themselves into things, they would likely still be awake by the time Naruto returned.

---

Naruto opened the door quietly hours later, not wanting to wake up his guests in case they were still asleep. They weren't, however, the two brothers sitting next to each other on Ed's borrowed futon, completely surrounded by various scrolls, eyes roaming over the printed words fervently. "Eto, have a nice nap?" he asked, unsure as to whether or not they had actually slept at all. Pushing the door shut behind him, he flicked the lock closed, for once remembering to do so. Ever the distracted one, Naruto had a tendency to leave his doors and windows unlocked, really finding no real reason to lock them in the first place. A non-committal noise was his only reply from the young man, who was apparently too distracted to answer properly. Pushed aside to make room for the slightly more advanced scrolls were the standard academy rolls. Had they already gotten that far? Makes me think of what I must look like, heh.

Nowhere near as rude as his brother, Alphonse spoke up to answer Naruto's question with a sheepish tone, "We've just been reading." He glanced down at Edward as the elder picked up another scroll, holding one in each hand to compare them both, another murmur passing his lips.

"Oh, well, whatever." Naruto shrugged, walking over and crouching down in front of the two. Peering down at all of the open scrolls, he shook his head in amazement, picking one up to glance over it thinking of how long it'd been since he'd actually just glanced over these. "Damn, you already breezed through the beginner scrolls?"

"Aa, though I have to look back at them once in a while." Ed finally spoke to their host, sharp eyes still running down the parchment absorbing the information contained within, a talented multitasker.

"Yeah, so did I when I was still learnin'. Whatcha got right now?" The blonde shinobi shifted aside some of the scrolls to squeeze down on Ed's other side between the boy and the bed to peer over his shoulder. "Ah, chakra control. That's the hardest part, really. Better trying that out in practice than readin' about it. Like that for most of the stuff, actually. Manage to figure out how to do anything on your own yet?" he asked, though really wasn't expecting much of an answer, and so was surprised when he got a definite one.

"Niisan's been trying." Alphonse said proudly.

"A few things. Though considering the chakra doesn't flow like normal from my right arm, it's causing some troubles." Ed complained while sucking in the information like a veritable human sponge.

"And your left leg, too." The shinobi pointed out. "The chakra probably circulates through your body differently than a normal person. Not sure if it even DOES through your left leg and right arm… Guess it depends. How are they powered?" he rambled slightly.

Edward brought up his automail hand and flexed it in front of his face, "Al brought up a good point while you were gone. Even though my limbs are made of metal, the actual nerves still travel through, connected with wiring and powered by my body's energy. Which is why I can control them just like real limbs. So, the chakra would likely still flow down. It's just the holes and points where the chakra flows out are gone. It flows from the joints and around the bolts and screws, most likely." He finished, lowering his hand back to his black clothed thigh, confident in his brother's theory.

Naruto let out a thoughtful noise, mulling over his words for a moment, "That would cause problems. Especially since you need both hands to make seal to perform almost all basic jutsu. Hmmm…" he skewed his kitsune-like face in deep thought. Or whatever it was Naruto considered 'deep'.

The elder Elric was nowhere near as concerned as the shinobi, waving off his words. Despite still reading the scroll in his hand, he was able to continue with their conversation without missing a beat. "Nah, not really. I can use both hands for it. I just need to adjust how it goes in and out of my automail. So, basically it's just extra practicing involved."

"Well, the chakra needs to be able to flow smoothly through both your hands for the focus of the jutsu to work." Naruto said, repeating things that the brothers had read bare hours before. "It'd probably be more difficult for you to try and figure out how to get the chakra flow of each arm to match than it would be to just use your left hand to perform the seals. Even though one-handed seals are kinda rare and usually don't work too well… Too bad Neji's not around anymore. He was a chakra flow EXPERT… No one knew more about the points than he did." he sighed softly in memory of his departed friend, lost on the mission to return Sasuke to Konoha. He'd died a true shinobi death, with pride and honor. Even though they'd had their moments of tension – when Neji viewed Naruto as someone hardly worth a speck of his time – they had formed a camaraderie, one that had been cruelly cut down by Death's intervention.

Ed watched him silently for a moment, the other blonde lost in sad memories, "Old friend?"

"Aa, he died on a mission a few years ago. Took out his enemy with him, though." He told the brothers, voiced mixed with sadness and pride.

"Gomen nasai, Naruto-san…" Alphonse said softly, knowing the pain of losing a friend or loved one himself. It never got easier. Brief moments of passing time might cover the wound, but they'd found it never healed completely.

The blonde alchemist put a hand on Naruto's shoulder in a comforting gesture. "Yeah, it's always hard to lose someone."

"Yeah, but risking death comes with being a shinobi." Naruto gave a bit of a shrug, never one to dwell on sad thoughts for long. "He's not the only friend I've lost, and I've come close my share of times, too. Ya know, I bet Hinata might be able to give you some pointers though!"

"Hinata?" Ed echoed.

"Neji's cousin. She's not as good as Neji was by a long shot, but she's from the Hyuuga clan too. Heir to it, actually. I'll talk to her tomorrow, I'm sure she'll say yes to helpin'. Even with the way the Hyuuga clan is, I know Hinata, and she's super sweet. She'll do it. And Tsunade-baachan gave me special permission to teach you personally all our normally top secret Konoha techniques." He finished with a wide grin.

"Hokage-sama had to give special permission?" Alphonse inquired, surprised at the news.

"Honto ka?" Ed blinked, this was news to him. (Brother really should learn to pay more attention when people talk to him… -Al)

The shinobi nodded, "Well, sorta. Normally all our jutsu and chakra stuff is top secret, which is a part of the reason that we have the Anbu. If a Konoha shinobi goes rogue, they get blacklisted. The Anbu track them down, kill them, and dispose of the body, usually. 'Cause even the dead body of a shinobi can give up secrets and we can't let the other villages get a hold of our techniques. But because of that treaty with your country we got going on, you're allowed to learn it."

"So that was what that meant. Alchemy for jutsu." Ed mumbled aloud, "Cool."

"Didn'tcha read what ya signed?" Naruto asked slowly, eyebrow raised enough that it was hidden beneath the hitai-ate on his forehead.

Alphonse giggled a bit, especially at the overly exaggerated flat look on his older sibling's face, "Hehe, Niisan needs to be better about that…" Yes, Edward definitely needed to learn to pay more attention…and stop trying to place the blame on the poor Colonel. The obscenities riding on Ed's mumbled breath caused Al to sweatdrop.

"Who's Mustang?" Naruto inquired, having caught the name among the harsh words.

"Mustang Roy taisa." Al answered, figuring it was safer for him to do so, than to let Ed go on a rant, "He's Niisan's superior in the army."

Edward let out a derisive snort, turning his gaze back to the parchment still in his hand. "Not that I'm IN the military. …the flame ass."

Not quite sure what to make of his new friend's ramblings, Naruto decided a change of subject was the best course of action. "So, show me something you figured out how to do."

He brightened quickly, setting down the scroll, "Alright, I was working with each hand to learn the differences as to what I could do with them." His left hand performed a seal slowly and precisely, a small, illusionary chimera appearing amongst the opened scrolls in front of them.

"That's a good idea with the automail an' all." The chuunin agreed before blinking at the odd creature he'd decided to project. Leaning down to peer at it curiously, he cut his eyes up at the alchemists, "What the hell is that thing?"

"A chimera." Al informed, voice smiling.

"A what?" was the clueless reply.

It was Edward's turn to fill him in, "Any two or more animals that have been merged together with the use of alchemy."

"You can DO that with alchemy? Like, put a bird and a cat together?"

"Aa, but it's not easy." Ed laughed at the incredulous look on Naruto's face, "It's also a little illegal in most areas."

"Damn, that's weird. Hn." He shook his head, attention returning to the illusion that had sparked his question in the first place, viewing it with a critical eye. "It's see-through, you can definitely tell it's an illusion, but it's pretty steady and stuff. A perfect illusion should be able to be mistaken for the real thing. But this is seriously GREAT for a guy who just started reading about jutsu and chakra a few hours ago!" Naruto exclaimed. A nagging voice in the back of his head he could not ignore decided to claim it was scarily great, Naruto never having seen anyone pick something up so fast but Shikamaru. Perhaps Ed's earlier confidence at the thought of playing shogi with the lazy genius wasn't as far off base as he'd originally thought. "Try it with your right hand, now."

Pride filled Al's voice at the compliment paid to his brother, "Niisan does seem to have a talent for it so far." He usually seemed to have a talent for everything. A grin and a seal later brought new chimera to replace the one that had vanished, the image shimmering and waving, as if having trouble holding its warped form.

"Hmm, yeah, it's working, but definitely not as good as the other one. Ya know, I bet it's because you're used to treating your automail arm just like your real arm and you're doing the same thing here. Except you can't with chakra 'cause it doesn't flow the same. So, it's probably just a problem with the way you're using your right arm, thinking of it the same way you do your left" Naruto reasoned out, not really realizing he'd pretty much repeated himself within the little speech. "Hinata should be able to help you with that though. Figure out where the chakra's actually coming off your arm and leg so you can use them as easily as your natural limbs."

"Aa, it's better than when I first tried. More than likely there are more points where it's released through this arm than the other." Ed said casually.

Naruto failed to agree, however, "Nah, I doubt that. Your chakra points are a lot like your pores, if I remember right. So there's probably WAY fewer points on your automail, and the chakra is probably pretty much flooding out of those few or having a hard time coming out at all. Hmm, this illusion is clearer and more solid looking than the other one, but it can't keep it's form for even a second. So, you're probably letting out too much. You should probably stop trying practical application of jutsu for tonight. It's likely you're wasting WAY more chakra than you need to, and if you put out too much you're gonna get real tired. It's hard to judge for me how much chakra a person has and since you just started using it yours is probably about average for a non-shinobi. Ya feel tired at all?" he finished his spiel, leaning to peer at Ed's face a little too closely.

Ed looked thoughtful briefly, "A bit, but I was tired before." He laughed.

Naruto's laughter joined his own, "You should probably still give it a break for tonight and go to sleep."

"Who knows, maybe knowing alchemy gives me a bit more control than a normal non-shinobi."

"Maybe so. Can't say since I don't know anything about alchemy, though." He said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck.

Alphonse looked out at the darkened sky through the window over Naruto's bed, the sun having long since tired of reading scrolls with them and slipped into slumber itself. "You'll have lots of time tomorrow, Niisan. You should probably go to sleep."

A longing expression crossed over the elder's face, eyes on the many scrolls around him, but Al's words seeped into his mind like his conscience. "I guess I should, huh?"

"Hai, Niisan." Al said, trying not to nag, "We'll be here for a long time, remember?"

"Yup!" Naruto chipped in, "No rush. Besides, if you rush, you're gonna hurt yourself. If a person uses up ALL their chakra they DIE, ya know."

A nodding clank from Al showed he agreed, "You'd better listen to Naruto-san, Niisan. You don't want to use up more than you need to and be tired tomorrow."

Edward sweatdropped, looking between the two of them, "I'm being ganged up on… Hai, hai, hai." He let out an over-exaggerated sigh, rolling the scrolls up with their help to clear his sleeping space. It never seemed to fail that Al would treat him like the younger brother. He couldn't quite argue the fact, however, despite not wanting to admit it, Edward knew he had a tendency to forget to take care of himself. Namely forgetting to sleep and eat. But Al was always there to gently nag him into remembering, he felt assured by it, not that he'd ever tell him that. Don't need to encourage the nagging, now do we? He stretched a bit when the book alternatives were back in their proper place, or rather what Naruto considered a proper place – shoved out of the way anywhere they'd fit. "Need a shower… I'll shower in the morning."

Al chuckled softly as his brother flopped back on the futon, the elder's missing sleep having caught up with him now that his mind was no longer occupied. Though in a way, it worked out better; at least now his brother could start to switch his circadian rhythm to this side of the world. "Silly Niisan."

Naruto stood, stripping down to his boxers, his worn clothes getting tossed at a nearby pile randomly. A shower was forgone due to the fact that he'd stopped at a public bath earlier, opting for it instead of his shower at home. He had tried to be polite and stay out so they could sleep, not that it actually worked out that way. "Oyasumi, Edo, Aru." He said with a short yawn, sprawling on the twin sized mattress.

"'Yasumi, Al, Naruto-kun." Ed murmured, curling on his side, his flesh and blood hand tucked under his head with the pillow.

Al sat quietly against the wall, armor body stilled to not make a sound, "Oyasumi nasai Niisan, Naruto-san."

Naruto groaned as he rolled over, pulling his sheet up to his shoulders, "Bleeeeeeeeh! No 'san' already!"

Alphonse's quiet laughter was the last thing either heard before drifting off in Dream's quiet clutches. The young man turned armor watched them both sleeping soundly, soulfire eyes resting on his brother's form gently. Even if he himself could no longer sleep, he took comfort in sharing the silent nighttime together with them.

---

August 2nd End.

A/N:

Decided to use Euros as their currency since Amestris is a European type country. If anyone knows for sure the name of the currency of Amestris, please tell us? Sankyuu!

Ani: Reviews are motivating, don'cha know? Rose: yes! Better than cookies reviews are! X3