Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist. I make no money from writing this nor profit from it in any other way. The same goes for all future chapters in this online publication.

Full Summary: Naruto has fought tooth and nail all his life, but no matter what he does he seems to keep losing the things that matter most to him. Then, after his sixteenth birthday, he finally loses someone that he cannot live without: Sakura. In a fit of desperation he forcibly steals a fraction of the Kyuubi's power and uses it to perform an arcane ritual in hopes of bringing her back. However, something goes wrong, something no one could have anticipated.

He wakes up in a mist filled room in a world far removed from what he knew, with no memories of his past, and a dying Edward Elric at his side. Edward Elric soon finds out that while he has lost both his mother and brother, he has gained something he cannot even begin to understand, something that will shake the world to its very core. Now, two blondes bound together by a mixture of loss and alchemy have little choice but to wander together, searching for the key to what they have lost. Pairings: Naruto/Rose and Ed/?

Prologue:

Taking Something Back

To whomever may be reading this,

Hands caked with blood and sweat scribbled endlessly on splintered hard wood floors.

Have you ever lost someone? Someone you cared about? Someone who cared about you? Over the course of four years, I've lost a lot of someones. First was Haku, someone who very well could have been my first friend…

A figure paused, using the sleeve of his burnt orange jacket to wipe the sweat off his face. He took a moment to gaze at his creation, a complex array of concentric circles and arcane symbols, before picking up the piece of chalk and going back to work.

… then there was Sasuke, the closest thing I ever had to a brother, who was lost to his own ambitions…

An open book sat beside him, filled with symbols and notes much like the ones he was drawing. It looked old and worn, like it had been bound in old skin.

…next was my teacher and god-father, Jiraiya. He made life funnier and more perverted at the same time. He lost his life at the hands of another student, a man named Pein. Tsunade-baa-chan called Jiraiya a brilliant fool, much like people have described me to be. I preferred to think of him as a perverted hermit. In time I might have adjusted to these loses, but in the end they just softened me up for the final blow.

The youth kneeling on the ground looked up from his work when a harsh banging erupted from the door.

"Naruto, are you in there? Open this door right now!"

Sakura-chan shouldn't have died. Sasuke shouldn't have killed her. We were teammates once. Teammates shouldn't do that to each other. I had to find a way to make it right.

Naruto gave a small sign as he got up from his crouch. He didn't have time for this. He walked over and opened the door a crack, just enough to see who was outside, but not enough for that person to see what he was doing inside. Naruto wasn't surprised in the least to find an irate, busty blonde woman standing on the other side of the door.

"Naruto, what is the meaning of this? You've been locked in this room for days. People have been asking about you. Your friends have been worried. I've been worried." She spoke the last part in a softer tone, her eyes pleading with him. "Naruto, tell me what's going on."

The other blonde felt a small pang of guilt in his heart when he "I'm fine, Tsunade-baa-chan. I just needed some time to myself, that's all."

"Well, I think you've had enough. You can't deal with these things by yourself. You need people," she said. "Do you even remember the last time you ate?"

Naruto tried to give her a reassuring smile, but it came out looking sour. "I've got plenty of food, Baa-chan. Just…just give me another day, okay. After that, you can drag me out of here kicking and screaming if you want."

Tsunade looked skeptical. "You promise?"

"I promise," he said, allowing a more genuine smile to cross his whisker-patterned face.

Orochimaru's notes were the key, I just knew it. He had raised people from the dead before, so why couldn't I do the same? It took me months to figure out the specifics, but the basic principle was easy. To gain something, something of roughly equal value had to be sacrificed. Orochi-teme had used live bodies, sacrificing a life in order to get one back in return, but I couldn't do that. Sakura would never forgive me if she knew I had killed someone to bring her back, so I had to think of something else. Then, one day, I remembered something…

Naruto closed the door and went back to work. He was almost done. All he needed were a few more minor adjustments.

Jinchuuriki, the power of human sacrifice. Within me I held the power of one of the greatest immortal beings to ever walk the earth. I figured the fox had enough chakra to revive a thousand human beings, so all I would need to do was provide the physical part. For that, I needed to go through some of Baa-chan's medical books.

"Water, phosphorous, carbon, ammonia, lime, salt, niter, sulfur, fluorine, iron, silicon and fifteen other elements in smaller quantities," Naruto listed off as he poured the contents into a large bowl in the middle of the seal array. It was strange breaking down a human being like that, as if it trivialized the magnitude of what he was about to try.

"Even if I survive this," he muttered to himself, "Baa-chan's gonna kill me."

I don't know why I'm writing this down. If I succeed, I doubt anyone's going to read this, and if I fail…well, then that makes it even less likely, doesn't it?

With a moment's hesitation, the blonde haired youth slammed his palms on the array while at the same time calling up as much of the demonic chakra from the seal as he could manage. In the back of his mind he could hear the beast roar in rage and pain as Naruto forcibly tore a portion of power away from its body, but he didn't stop. Even when the array flashed to blue, then purple, before settling into an all-consuming red. The heat was almost unbearable and light blinding, but through his squinted eyes he could see something forming in the middle of the circle, something that was starting to form a familiar shape. He almost laughed in his joy until his attention was caught by a traveling numbness in his arms and legs. He looked down to see that his limbs were beginning to glow like the seal array, and that same glow was slowly creeping its way to the rest of his body. For a moment he panicked and almost removed his hands from the seal array, but another look at the center of the circle made him stop.

"For you, Sakura-chan. Always for you," he whispered, and then pushed more of his energy.

The air in the room howled and bucked like a caged beast, but Naruto didn't let up.

If one of my precious people is reading this, I just want you to understand my reasons, even if you don't agree with them. Life has taken so much from me. It's time for me to take something back.

Sincerely,

Naruto

*~*~*

The flashing lights coming from Naruto's apartment could be seen from all around Konoha, bringing an enraged and panicked Tsunade crashing through the door a few seconds later.

"Naruto!"

Nothing could be seen through the smoke that permeated the room, but when she strained her ears she could detect the faint groan of another person. Without thought to the consequence, Tsunade charged forward into the mist. What she found, however, was a far cry from what she expected or even feared.

"Naruto…what did you do?" she whispered.

Sadly, Naruto wasn't there to answer her.

Author's Note: Bit of a teaser for a prologue. Don't worry, the other chapters will be a lot longer than this.

Wow, it's been a long time since I submitted anything. I'd almost forgotten what it was like. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this. I welcome all thoughts, queries, and constructive criticisms, and I'll get the next chapter out here as soon as I can.

-SotSP