Fullmetal Ninja [Chapter 9]
Jun. 4th, 2008 09:46 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
esp_dragonFandom: Fullmetal Alchemist/ Naruto crossover
Summary: Ed and Al tried to resurrect their Mother but something went wrong. Not only did they fail, their bodies paying the price, but they are no longer in Amestris. They are in a world where all the natural rules aren't always obeyed...
Rating: T
Notes: And the beta-ed version's up. :D
A lot of pauses at the start.
Overuse of commas and semi-colons.
I did have fun writing Konohamaru though. :3
Genre: General
Word count: 2,423
Total word count: 22,028
Status: Work in Progress
Iruka took a deep breath, savouring for a moment the familiar scents of home. He then wrinkled his nose at just how much he stank of blood and sweat. It had been a relatively short mission, only lasting a few days, but there had been a lot of skirmishes along the way. He’d declined staying the night, opting to leave straight away and return as soon as possible and with only himself to worry about, it was a rapid journey home.
Konoha seemed to sparkle in the darkness; the lights from homes and shops bathed the streets in a warm yellow glow. There were still quite a few people moving about, doing some last minute shopping or out socialising, but it was still generally quiet. Now all he had to do was report in. Then he could return home, shower and collapse on his nice warm bed: at least then he’d be coherent when the Hokage debriefed him in the morning.
xXx
“…And that’s all that happened, Lady Hokage,” Iruka said, finishing his report. He waited to see if she would make any comments or ask any questions. She shouldn’t since it was a straight-forward mission with no complications.
She’d been playing with a pen as she listened to him, rolling it between her fingertips. There was a seconds silence after he’d finished before she put the pen down with a small sigh, and closed her eyes. “All right.” The Hokage didn’t say anything for another minute, just sitting there. Iruka was beginning to wonder if he had been dismissed when she spoke again.
“You’ll receive your payment at the end of the week,” she said distractedly. There was another small pause before she opened her eyes. “Are you rested enough to begin another mission?” she asked, studying him. She leaned back a little in her chair. “It’s a C-rank mission,” she added.
Iruka considered the question. He’d had a good night’s rest sleeping in his own bed and he hadn’t suffered from any serious injuries in the fights; a lot of scrapes, cuts and bruises but they had already been treated, bandaged up or salves put on them. It would largely depend on what the mission was but if it was a C-rank mission, he should easily be able to handle it. He nodded.
The Hokage mirrored him slowly. “Naruto called it babysitting,” she said amused, her eyes focused in the distance.
Hearing this, Iruka’s eyebrows rose. Naruto had taken this mission? So why had he stopped? He then wryly remembered the Fire Lord’s wife’s cat and how many genin had been sent after it alone. Also, it was probably a good thing that Naruto wasn’t babysitting (or whatever it really was) considering his influence of Konohamaru… But the way she’d said it –and knowing Naruto- it wasn’t exactly that.
“In truth, your mission is partially that,” she admitted, “but there’s something else I want you to do. The two boys don’t know our language but they’ve been picking up phrases at a fast rate,” she said, diving right in. “I’ve heard about your teaching skills; I want you to teach them our language while seeing if you can get them to teach you part of their own.”
There were no records of this language? Iruka wondered. No-one knew it? He shook his head, forcing his mind back on track. It didn’t matter that there was no information about the language; they would be learning about it now, which was what mattered.
Accepting the mission would mean that he would be staying in the village for an indeterminate amount of time. Even if the language was closely related to their own it could still take months to carry out. There was a level of befriending as well (so that they would teach him their language) which was probably why the Hokage was asking a school teacher for both reasons. But why him? He thought that the others in the school were better teachers. As well as that, depending on how things went, he could still do other missions as well. He made his decision. “I accept.”
The Hokage quirked her lips at him. “Okay. As I’ve already said, they’re fast learners; they’ve learned more than a handful of phrases and words from people willing to stay with them for more than five minutes.” She snorted. “They’re very eager and determined to learn our language; one of them, Ed, seems to be getting very frustrated at not being understood and having to use gestures to get his point across.”
At this, Iruka chuckled, relaxing slightly. “It’ll be a change from what I’m used to.”
Her smile turned wry before she became serious again. “Now, there are a few things that you need to know about these two brothers. The first is…”
xXx
“Right,” Ed mumbled as he scribbled on the paper in front of him. Littered on the bed around the two of them were pieces of paper, each with its own elaborate design drawn on it. Every single one was different from each other, ranging from the very simple to overly complex. Making the correction, Ed checked the Array over one last time. When he couldn’t see any other mistakes he activated it.
A flash of light later, there was a miniature chair sitting in the centre of the Array.
Al grinned at him. While they hadn’t tried every single Array they knew -which was impossible unless they started to draw on the walls, and some Arrays had very specific functions- they at least knew that they hadn’t forgotten the basics of Alchemy and that they could still draw and activate Arrays. A good thing for Al because clapping with a hand and a foot wasn’t convenient in any way.
Concentrating on making sure that the chair was exactly what he wanted it to be, Ed absently swiped at his foot when it started to itch. He froze in surprise when his hand went through it. ‘What?’ Looking down, Ed realised that the itchy foot had been his left. He stifled a groan.
“Great,” he muttered. He hadn’t felt any twinges from his left leg apart from when he had first woken up but if it was starting now… Ed didn’t know if this was exceptionally early or normal – he’d never asked Granny about the exact details, but he knew that most people with amputated limbs and no prosthetic limbs got it. He just hoped it wouldn’t develop into the type of agonising pain he’d sometimes heard it being described as. His eyes wandered to Al and he wondered if Al would be getting it soon too.
Al had seen Ed’s movement. He didn’t say anything at first, just looked at him in concern. “When do you think they’ll start asking if we want a prosthetic or Automail?”
“Well…” Ed trailed off and frowned. They’d been here for how many days now? He counted them up - six days, he realised, and he’d seen the wound every time the nurse redressed the bandages; they’d had to cauterise the wound to make sure that they wouldn’t bleed to death and it was healing quickly. Which was good and everything but the longer they waited, the more they healed, the worse it would be when the Automail implants had to go in. Ed grimaced. They’d either have to reopen the wounds to be able to get to the still live nerve endings if the healing progressed too far or possibly cut of bits of flesh around the wound to the same effect.
They hadn’t been asked what kind of prosthetic they wanted. They hadn’t been measured (unless they’d done it while they were asleep. If they had, that was a little bit creepy) or had anyone bring in a prosthetic to measure against them. Didn’t they have them in this wo – city, Ed hastily corrected himself before actually thinking the word. Did the people who’d lost their limbs go around with an empty sleeve, in a wheelchair or on crutches and that was it? It didn’t fit. If a little village like Resembool could make Automail, how could such a large sprawling city not even know about the regular prosthetics?
“The way people have been acting,” Ed said slowly, eyes drifting, “I don’t think they know about Automail here.” Which made sense because Automail was a technology from the other side of the world. It’d have been pretty weird if they had the exact same technology here.
The next medical person who visited them, they’d try and ask about it, Ed decided.
A few minutes later, there was a knock at the door. “Come in,” Al called out a second before him, recalling the phrase faster than he did.
The person who walked in wasn’t one of the medical staff. Ed wasn’t sure but the jacket the man was wearing seemed familiar. A few seconds thought and he placed the colour and shape to the one Lee’s father had been wearing.
He was also wearing a silver band like Naruto did, on his forehead. Under the jacket was a dark blue, long-sleeved baggy shirt with matching trousers. What struck them the most was a deep scar which ran across the bridge of his nose and dark hair pulled into a rather odd spiky bunch at the back.
Seeing them sitting on the bed, he smiled as he walked up to them. “Hello. My name is Iruka.”
It was a good thing they’d somehow found a convoluted way of asking Naruto to name common phrases a few days ago because at least they knew some of the basics now.
xXx
Konohamaru peered around the corner but snapped back again when he heard someone coming towards him. He stayed there, hugging the wall, not moving a muscle, trying to keep his breathing quiet. The person passed him, not looking away from the clipboard in his hand. Breathing a sigh of relief, he peeked around the corner again. Boss was here somewhere, and he’d find him even if he had to wait all day! Until lunch anyway. A ninja had to keep his strength up after all.
He knew that there were two places Naruto would go in here but he’d already checked the dark-haired boy’s room; the pink-haired girl was there as usual, but no Naruto. So that left one place. If he could just remember where it was...
He discreetly wandered the corridors, jumping into shadows, behind chairs and around corners every time he heard footsteps moving towards him. After about an hour, Konohamaru recognised his current hiding place (the laundry trolley) as the same place he had hidden in from Naruto a few days ago; it had the same stain in the shape of the Hokage hat on one wall. He peeked over the top, trying to see if the rest of the corridor was familiar. It wasn’t but he jumped over the wall and sprinted to the next available hiding spot: a wilting potted plant about the same height as him. Konohamaru waited for a group of people to pass and then wondered if he should take the left or right corridor. He took another quick glance around to make sure that no-one was trying to sneak up on him. Seeing the coast was clear he closed his eyes and spun around once throwing his left arm out just before he stopped.
Decision made, he opened his eyes and groaned quietly at the momentary dizziness before staggering slightly down the left corridor.
A little while later he discovered he’d made the right choice when he found the door he was looking for. Cackling to himself, Konohamaru slid the door open as quietly as he could and was about to sneak in when he noticed who was actually in the room. ‘Ackackack! Abort the mission! Abort the mission!’ He turned around to run in the opposite direction.
“Konohamaru?”
Too late. He froze, mind working furiously. Maybe if he just...
“Konohamaru, what are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be training?” Iruka had his arms crossed and looking disapprovingly at him. The other boys were looking on curiously.
“I am!” he protested. “I got here without anyone seeing me!” He hadn’t been doing any kind of physical training but that was because everyone else was busy with something else, but Iruka didn’t have to know that. He’d been getting really good at sneaking about with all the practice he’d been getting.
There was a small pause as Iruka sighed. “And where are Udon and Moegi?” Iruka asked, looking around for his two friends.
Konohamaru grumbled and looked away. “They’re both at home doing chores.” They were training to become ninja; why did they have to do chores? It always took them ages to finish too.
“Ah.” Iruka was smiling at him in understanding. What had he said? “You were trying to find Naruto?”
Wha-? How’d he know? “Well, yeah.”
Iruka suddenly perked up as he remembered something. He turned around to face the other boys. “This is Konohamaru” he said to them, speaking slower than normal. Iruka then gestured towards them.
“My name is Ed.”
“My name is Al.” They both looked at Iruka for confirmation, who smiled in encouragement.
It was said slowly and in an unfamiliar accent. “What’re you doin’?” Konohamaru asked his teacher curiously. Why was he acting like he was teaching in a classroom? All the teachers were supposed to be on missions – not in hospitals doing their normal work.
Someone bumped into him from behind. “Huh?” Gah! When did Naruto sneak up behind him? “What’re you – Iruka!” Naruto walked past, forgetting about him as soon as he saw his teacher. “When’d you get back?”
Iruka didn’t seem surprised that Naruto had just appeared out of nowhere but he had probably sensed him coming or something. “Last night.” He returned his attention back to Konohamaru and gestured to the boys behind him. “I’m teaching these two how to speak our language.”
Konohamaru’s eyebrows furrowed. Why didn’t they know how to speak their language? Didn’t someone teach them how to talk?
Naruto had his arms crossed, thinking about something. “I was gonna stay here for a bit,” he admitted, “but if you’re here, then I can go see Sasuke instead.”
He was already out the door when Iruka called out after him. “Wait!”
Naruto’s head poked back in. “What?”
“Do you want to go for ramen when I’m finished?”
Naruto brightened and punched the air. “All right!” With that, Naruto exited with both hands behind his head, grin on his face and muttering happily.
Belatedly Iruka remembered something. “Wait... I’m being paid at the end of the week.” Iruka pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed.
Previous Chapter | Next Chapter
Summary: Ed and Al tried to resurrect their Mother but something went wrong. Not only did they fail, their bodies paying the price, but they are no longer in Amestris. They are in a world where all the natural rules aren't always obeyed...
Rating: T
Notes: And the beta-ed version's up. :D
A lot of pauses at the start.
Overuse of commas and semi-colons.
I did have fun writing Konohamaru though. :3
Genre: General
Word count: 2,423
Total word count: 22,028
Status: Work in Progress
Iruka took a deep breath, savouring for a moment the familiar scents of home. He then wrinkled his nose at just how much he stank of blood and sweat. It had been a relatively short mission, only lasting a few days, but there had been a lot of skirmishes along the way. He’d declined staying the night, opting to leave straight away and return as soon as possible and with only himself to worry about, it was a rapid journey home.
Konoha seemed to sparkle in the darkness; the lights from homes and shops bathed the streets in a warm yellow glow. There were still quite a few people moving about, doing some last minute shopping or out socialising, but it was still generally quiet. Now all he had to do was report in. Then he could return home, shower and collapse on his nice warm bed: at least then he’d be coherent when the Hokage debriefed him in the morning.
“…And that’s all that happened, Lady Hokage,” Iruka said, finishing his report. He waited to see if she would make any comments or ask any questions. She shouldn’t since it was a straight-forward mission with no complications.
She’d been playing with a pen as she listened to him, rolling it between her fingertips. There was a seconds silence after he’d finished before she put the pen down with a small sigh, and closed her eyes. “All right.” The Hokage didn’t say anything for another minute, just sitting there. Iruka was beginning to wonder if he had been dismissed when she spoke again.
“You’ll receive your payment at the end of the week,” she said distractedly. There was another small pause before she opened her eyes. “Are you rested enough to begin another mission?” she asked, studying him. She leaned back a little in her chair. “It’s a C-rank mission,” she added.
Iruka considered the question. He’d had a good night’s rest sleeping in his own bed and he hadn’t suffered from any serious injuries in the fights; a lot of scrapes, cuts and bruises but they had already been treated, bandaged up or salves put on them. It would largely depend on what the mission was but if it was a C-rank mission, he should easily be able to handle it. He nodded.
The Hokage mirrored him slowly. “Naruto called it babysitting,” she said amused, her eyes focused in the distance.
Hearing this, Iruka’s eyebrows rose. Naruto had taken this mission? So why had he stopped? He then wryly remembered the Fire Lord’s wife’s cat and how many genin had been sent after it alone. Also, it was probably a good thing that Naruto wasn’t babysitting (or whatever it really was) considering his influence of Konohamaru… But the way she’d said it –and knowing Naruto- it wasn’t exactly that.
“In truth, your mission is partially that,” she admitted, “but there’s something else I want you to do. The two boys don’t know our language but they’ve been picking up phrases at a fast rate,” she said, diving right in. “I’ve heard about your teaching skills; I want you to teach them our language while seeing if you can get them to teach you part of their own.”
There were no records of this language? Iruka wondered. No-one knew it? He shook his head, forcing his mind back on track. It didn’t matter that there was no information about the language; they would be learning about it now, which was what mattered.
Accepting the mission would mean that he would be staying in the village for an indeterminate amount of time. Even if the language was closely related to their own it could still take months to carry out. There was a level of befriending as well (so that they would teach him their language) which was probably why the Hokage was asking a school teacher for both reasons. But why him? He thought that the others in the school were better teachers. As well as that, depending on how things went, he could still do other missions as well. He made his decision. “I accept.”
The Hokage quirked her lips at him. “Okay. As I’ve already said, they’re fast learners; they’ve learned more than a handful of phrases and words from people willing to stay with them for more than five minutes.” She snorted. “They’re very eager and determined to learn our language; one of them, Ed, seems to be getting very frustrated at not being understood and having to use gestures to get his point across.”
At this, Iruka chuckled, relaxing slightly. “It’ll be a change from what I’m used to.”
Her smile turned wry before she became serious again. “Now, there are a few things that you need to know about these two brothers. The first is…”
“Right,” Ed mumbled as he scribbled on the paper in front of him. Littered on the bed around the two of them were pieces of paper, each with its own elaborate design drawn on it. Every single one was different from each other, ranging from the very simple to overly complex. Making the correction, Ed checked the Array over one last time. When he couldn’t see any other mistakes he activated it.
A flash of light later, there was a miniature chair sitting in the centre of the Array.
Al grinned at him. While they hadn’t tried every single Array they knew -which was impossible unless they started to draw on the walls, and some Arrays had very specific functions- they at least knew that they hadn’t forgotten the basics of Alchemy and that they could still draw and activate Arrays. A good thing for Al because clapping with a hand and a foot wasn’t convenient in any way.
Concentrating on making sure that the chair was exactly what he wanted it to be, Ed absently swiped at his foot when it started to itch. He froze in surprise when his hand went through it. ‘What?’ Looking down, Ed realised that the itchy foot had been his left. He stifled a groan.
“Great,” he muttered. He hadn’t felt any twinges from his left leg apart from when he had first woken up but if it was starting now… Ed didn’t know if this was exceptionally early or normal – he’d never asked Granny about the exact details, but he knew that most people with amputated limbs and no prosthetic limbs got it. He just hoped it wouldn’t develop into the type of agonising pain he’d sometimes heard it being described as. His eyes wandered to Al and he wondered if Al would be getting it soon too.
Al had seen Ed’s movement. He didn’t say anything at first, just looked at him in concern. “When do you think they’ll start asking if we want a prosthetic or Automail?”
“Well…” Ed trailed off and frowned. They’d been here for how many days now? He counted them up - six days, he realised, and he’d seen the wound every time the nurse redressed the bandages; they’d had to cauterise the wound to make sure that they wouldn’t bleed to death and it was healing quickly. Which was good and everything but the longer they waited, the more they healed, the worse it would be when the Automail implants had to go in. Ed grimaced. They’d either have to reopen the wounds to be able to get to the still live nerve endings if the healing progressed too far or possibly cut of bits of flesh around the wound to the same effect.
They hadn’t been asked what kind of prosthetic they wanted. They hadn’t been measured (unless they’d done it while they were asleep. If they had, that was a little bit creepy) or had anyone bring in a prosthetic to measure against them. Didn’t they have them in this wo – city, Ed hastily corrected himself before actually thinking the word. Did the people who’d lost their limbs go around with an empty sleeve, in a wheelchair or on crutches and that was it? It didn’t fit. If a little village like Resembool could make Automail, how could such a large sprawling city not even know about the regular prosthetics?
“The way people have been acting,” Ed said slowly, eyes drifting, “I don’t think they know about Automail here.” Which made sense because Automail was a technology from the other side of the world. It’d have been pretty weird if they had the exact same technology here.
The next medical person who visited them, they’d try and ask about it, Ed decided.
A few minutes later, there was a knock at the door. “Come in,” Al called out a second before him, recalling the phrase faster than he did.
The person who walked in wasn’t one of the medical staff. Ed wasn’t sure but the jacket the man was wearing seemed familiar. A few seconds thought and he placed the colour and shape to the one Lee’s father had been wearing.
He was also wearing a silver band like Naruto did, on his forehead. Under the jacket was a dark blue, long-sleeved baggy shirt with matching trousers. What struck them the most was a deep scar which ran across the bridge of his nose and dark hair pulled into a rather odd spiky bunch at the back.
Seeing them sitting on the bed, he smiled as he walked up to them. “Hello. My name is Iruka.”
It was a good thing they’d somehow found a convoluted way of asking Naruto to name common phrases a few days ago because at least they knew some of the basics now.
Konohamaru peered around the corner but snapped back again when he heard someone coming towards him. He stayed there, hugging the wall, not moving a muscle, trying to keep his breathing quiet. The person passed him, not looking away from the clipboard in his hand. Breathing a sigh of relief, he peeked around the corner again. Boss was here somewhere, and he’d find him even if he had to wait all day! Until lunch anyway. A ninja had to keep his strength up after all.
He knew that there were two places Naruto would go in here but he’d already checked the dark-haired boy’s room; the pink-haired girl was there as usual, but no Naruto. So that left one place. If he could just remember where it was...
He discreetly wandered the corridors, jumping into shadows, behind chairs and around corners every time he heard footsteps moving towards him. After about an hour, Konohamaru recognised his current hiding place (the laundry trolley) as the same place he had hidden in from Naruto a few days ago; it had the same stain in the shape of the Hokage hat on one wall. He peeked over the top, trying to see if the rest of the corridor was familiar. It wasn’t but he jumped over the wall and sprinted to the next available hiding spot: a wilting potted plant about the same height as him. Konohamaru waited for a group of people to pass and then wondered if he should take the left or right corridor. He took another quick glance around to make sure that no-one was trying to sneak up on him. Seeing the coast was clear he closed his eyes and spun around once throwing his left arm out just before he stopped.
Decision made, he opened his eyes and groaned quietly at the momentary dizziness before staggering slightly down the left corridor.
A little while later he discovered he’d made the right choice when he found the door he was looking for. Cackling to himself, Konohamaru slid the door open as quietly as he could and was about to sneak in when he noticed who was actually in the room. ‘Ackackack! Abort the mission! Abort the mission!’ He turned around to run in the opposite direction.
“Konohamaru?”
Too late. He froze, mind working furiously. Maybe if he just...
“Konohamaru, what are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be training?” Iruka had his arms crossed and looking disapprovingly at him. The other boys were looking on curiously.
“I am!” he protested. “I got here without anyone seeing me!” He hadn’t been doing any kind of physical training but that was because everyone else was busy with something else, but Iruka didn’t have to know that. He’d been getting really good at sneaking about with all the practice he’d been getting.
There was a small pause as Iruka sighed. “And where are Udon and Moegi?” Iruka asked, looking around for his two friends.
Konohamaru grumbled and looked away. “They’re both at home doing chores.” They were training to become ninja; why did they have to do chores? It always took them ages to finish too.
“Ah.” Iruka was smiling at him in understanding. What had he said? “You were trying to find Naruto?”
Wha-? How’d he know? “Well, yeah.”
Iruka suddenly perked up as he remembered something. He turned around to face the other boys. “This is Konohamaru” he said to them, speaking slower than normal. Iruka then gestured towards them.
“My name is Ed.”
“My name is Al.” They both looked at Iruka for confirmation, who smiled in encouragement.
It was said slowly and in an unfamiliar accent. “What’re you doin’?” Konohamaru asked his teacher curiously. Why was he acting like he was teaching in a classroom? All the teachers were supposed to be on missions – not in hospitals doing their normal work.
Someone bumped into him from behind. “Huh?” Gah! When did Naruto sneak up behind him? “What’re you – Iruka!” Naruto walked past, forgetting about him as soon as he saw his teacher. “When’d you get back?”
Iruka didn’t seem surprised that Naruto had just appeared out of nowhere but he had probably sensed him coming or something. “Last night.” He returned his attention back to Konohamaru and gestured to the boys behind him. “I’m teaching these two how to speak our language.”
Konohamaru’s eyebrows furrowed. Why didn’t they know how to speak their language? Didn’t someone teach them how to talk?
Naruto had his arms crossed, thinking about something. “I was gonna stay here for a bit,” he admitted, “but if you’re here, then I can go see Sasuke instead.”
He was already out the door when Iruka called out after him. “Wait!”
Naruto’s head poked back in. “What?”
“Do you want to go for ramen when I’m finished?”
Naruto brightened and punched the air. “All right!” With that, Naruto exited with both hands behind his head, grin on his face and muttering happily.
Belatedly Iruka remembered something. “Wait... I’m being paid at the end of the week.” Iruka pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed.
no subject
Date: Jun. 4th, 2008 09:45 am (UTC)The ending with Naruto feels a little abrupt, but I don't think he's OOC...though I do think he's more prone to sticking around out of curiosity than leaving.
no subject
Date: Jun. 4th, 2008 10:51 am (UTC)^ ^; Most of my endings are abrupt since I never know how to end stuff.
XD *flails* But then he'd be watching Iruka teaching and that's booring! Plus, he's feeling a little tiny bit guilty about visiting the brothers when he could have been visiting Sasuke.