The Truth Decays

By Marz

Chapter 14

The Hokage Tower…

Tsunade looked out her window at the family of moles that had started a den just outside. Every once in a while one of the moles would bump into the glass, but if it bothered them, they didn’t show it. The chances of getting her office moved above ground were getting slimmer and slimmer. She tried to look at the bright side. Happy little moles were much more pleasant to look at than the silent brooding group in her office: a clan head, an interrogation master, an ANBU captain, her pervert teammate, her assistant, and a man in a green unitard. Tsunade rubbed her head and then looked at Ibiki.

“Anything new from the guards?” she asked him.

“One of them committed suicide. The other still denies seeing anything,” the interrogation master said in his usual rumbling growl. “If this does involve remnants of ROOT, the dead one was probably our culprit.”

Tsunade had sworn up and down that Danzo would get it if he screwed with her, but without evidence, she couldn’t drag him in front of the council as a traitor, and she didn’t have the resources to have him killed. The only people she had evidence against were the Hyuga, and they were some of her strongest supporters.

And of course there was still Elric to deal with. She supposed she could humbly apologize and offer him a free punch, but she wasn’t really in the mood for groveling.

Fortunately for Edward, the curse seal had turned itself off after it knocked him out. And then it knocked him out again when he woke up and screwed with it. And then a third time, after which they had strapped him to his hospital bed.

Hyuga Hiashi was sitting on the couch by her filing cabinets, looking very inconvenienced. He’d had a look at the seal after the second time Edward knocked himself out setting it off. It was somewhat good timing. Since Hiashi hadn’t exactly met Edward, they didn’t hate each other yet, though the head of the Hyuga clan was not exactly brimming with sympathy for the boy.

“What’s your take on it?” Tsunade asked him.

“It is a variation of the caged-bird-seal,” Hiashi said, waving to the copy they’d made of the mark. “But it is not the work of my clan. These extra lines are triggers unrelated to sealing. They most likely link the seal to a particular anchor location, and set it off when the boy moves too far away. The position indicates it is meant to cause intense pain and paralysis to stop him from escaping.”

“So it won’t kill him?” Tsunade said.

“No, it will kill him if he moves far enough away from the anchor,” Hiashi said. “Or if he persists in his attempts to alter it.”

“Could you locate the anchor point?” Tsunade asked.

“Perhaps if I were present when the seal was activated. That should draw enough chakra into the link to make it visible. Time would be the issue, though. As I understand it, the seal only stays active for a few minutes. Either it is automatically deactivating after the boy is unconscious, or the person at the anchor is turning it off before it kills him,” Hiashi said. “We may have to continuously reactivate it, or keep it active longer if I am to find the source.”

“But if we find and destroy that anchor seal-” Gai started to say.

“You will kill him,” Hiashi said. “The anchor tells the seal to remain dormant. If it is gone, the seal will remain active until it kills him.”

Gai slumped. Tsunade really wanted some sake.

“Do you have any idea who could’ve done this?” Tsunade asked.

“The person who applied it obviously did not have the use of the Byakugan,” Hiashi said. “In several places the tenketsu points were missed or half-covered.”

“But the job isn’t so sloppy you can peel it off?” Tsunade asked.

“No, Lady Hokage,” Hiashi said. “The seal will kill less efficiently than a properly applied caged-bird, but it is permanently bound to the boy’s chakra.”

“Do you know who could have applied it?” Tsunade asked. “Aside from members of your clan?”

“Only the leaders of the main branch are trained to create the caged-bird-seal, and none of those people were unaccounted for last night, nor would they have taught the technique to an outsider. You have my word that no member of my clan was involved.”

Tsunade resisted the urge to huff. She couldn’t challenge him again on the subject without it being a mortal insult. When it came to their word, the old clans were finicky that way.

“And no one has broken into your clan compound and stolen the instructions recently?” she asked.

“We would’ve reported such a thing. The most recent incident of scroll theft from our compound was an incident attributed to Orochimaru 14 years ago,” Hiashi said.

“And I take it none of the ANBU at the Hospital saw anyone suspicious entering Elric’s room, Hyugas in particular?” Jiraiya asked.

Tsunade leaned back in her chair. At least she had him around to get out all the gauche things that needed to be said. Ibiki kept the response professional.

“The only Hyuga we found in the area was Hyuga Hinata. Apparently she was lurking in the hospital working up the nerve to deliver an apology to Elric. When the ANBU brought her in for questioning, all she had on her were the standard-issue genin weapons and a book on etiquette. Several people saw her in the ladies’ bathroom, telling the mirror she was “deeply aggrieved for the suffering I have caused you” and other such remarks.”

Tsunade thought Hiashi Hyuga would’ve looked less embarrassed if his neurotic daughter had been Danzo’s agent. Of course, she still had no proof that it was Danzo. She couldn’t even drop his name in present company without political backlash.

“I take it she was cleared and released?” she asked.

Ibiki nodded.

“Isn’t there something we can do for Edward?” Gai asked.

“He’ll learn to stop picking at it after a while,” Ibiki said. “It’s more painful than anything I could do to him…without special tools.”

Tsunade did not like the interrogation master’s smirk.

“But Edward-,” Gai said.

“The really important question is, ’Who went behind the Hokage’s back?’” Ibiki said. “There were no major council meetings between your return and installation, and none of the chief councilors are claiming responsibility. We need to know who is making calls outside of the official channels.”

“And who has the power to cover it up,” ANBU Rhino said, speaking for the first time. “This means that all the ANBU on duty were either compromised or fooled, and since none of the medical staff reported the still-bleeding seal, they are all suspect as well. We haven’t had an issue like this since Orochimaru.”

“Can we all stop saying the “O” word?” Jiraiya asked.

“If it is a councilor, they would probably just want Elric kept in the village as a resource. If it’s someone else, they will have to approach Elric to make their intentions known,” Ibiki said.

“But what about getting someone to remove it?” Gai pressed.

“At the moment, he’s more useful as bait,” Ibiki said.

“But the seal is-”

“I’m sure he’ll get tired of playing with himself eventually,” Ibiki said.

“And according to the Hyuga there is no way to remove the seal,” Tsunade said.

“Perhaps you, Lord Jiraiya-”

“I’ll look into it,” Jiraiya said.

He couldn’t promise much more than that, especially with the head of the Hyuga clan sitting right there. Tsunade sighed.

“We’ll work on it, Gai,” she said. “But for now, leave it alone and tell him to leave it alone.”

“Yes m’lady,” Gai said, obviously forlorn.

“Hiashi, could anyone else in your clan backtrack the active seal to the anchor?” Tsunade asked.

“There are a few skilled enough, though most are either busy with missions or clan business,” he said.

“What about Neji?” Gai suggested.

“I suppose he is capable, if the village has no other use for him,” Hiashi said.

Tsunade noted the head of the Hyuga clan did not look thrilled with the idea. She wondered if it was because Neji, who also bore a caged-bird-seal, would be endangered if he meddled in the matter. Or perhaps Hiashi was worried that his sealed nephew would be too eager to assign blame to his own authoritarian clan.

“Alright, we can assign Gai’s team to help babysit the brat. They’re on modified duty without Lee, anyway,” she said.

Shizune nodded. Tsunade looked at Gai again.

“Are you sure you still want to take responsibility for Elric when the hospital releases him? I doubt the seal is going to make him more tractable.”

“Fear not, good lady!” Gai said, throwing his arms wide. “I’m certain I will be able to instill in him the youthful spirit of our village. Though the tireless forces of the medical corps have no doubt done their best to explain to him the greatness of our home, Konoha must be lived! In my care he will experience all the glories of our village, and bask in our noble history!”

“Um, right,” she said. “Just don’t drop him on his head or anything.”

Konoha Hospital…

“No visitors,” the ANBU guard repeated.

“Why not?” Sasuke asked.

“The subject is being kept in isolation,” the guard replied.

“Since when?” Sasuke asked.

“Since 0900 today,” the guard said.

Sasuke thought he could hear the man smirking behind his porcelain mask. Sasuke knew Naruto had been allowed in to see Elric the previous day. Why would they let that idiot in and not him? They’d even let Ino in, and she’d had nothing to do with any of this.

“Why?” Sasuke asked.

“That information is confidential,” the guard said.

There was a sharp snapping noise from down the hall, and the second guard, who had yet to speak, vanished in a blur. Sasuke considered trying to run past the remaining guard, but even if he got to the room before the guard, the ANBU would be able to throw him back out.

An alarm started to sound. It was a non-threatening ping, ping, ping, but it brought a half-dozen nurses running. Sasuke and the guard pressed against the wall so they could pass. The nurses looked annoyed more than concerned.

The last nurse to run past looked surprised, and let out a yelp as her feet went out of under her. Sasuke barely noticed the ANBU’s hand twitch, pulling up tripwires that had been laid along a crack in the tile floor. Neither of them moved to catch the nurse and she cracked her head on the floor. There was a puff of smoke, and a moment later Naruto sat up, having lost control of his disguise spell.

“What are you doing, fool?” Sasuke asked.

“Hu?” Naruto asked, rubbing his head. “What are you doing here, you bastard?”

Sasuke grabbed the collar of Naruto’s jacket and pulled him to his feet. Naruto staggered around for a moment, bounced off a wall and finally managed to find his balance.

“Neither of you is getting in,” the guard said.

“Granny Tsunade said I could visit Ed,” Naruto complained.

“All permissions were revoked this morning,” the guard said. “I told you that the first three times you tried to get in.”

“The Fifth Hokage gave you special permission to visit him before?” Sasuke asked.

“Sure,” Naruto said. “She and the old pervert said they were going to let Ed go really soon, but until then I could visit, but today they just keep kicking me out.”

“So if we get permission from her again, we can get through?” Sasuke asked the guard.

“If you have all the official seals on it,” the guard said.

“Fine!” Naruto said. “We’ll get granny’s seal or whatever and come back.”

Naruto turned as if to march off, but then turned around again.

“WE’LL BE BACK TO VISIT SOON, ED!” he bellowed.

“Come on, idiot,” Sasuke said.

Naruto didn’t move right away, apparently waiting for Elric to shout something back. No response came.

“BYE, ED!” Naruto shouted.

There was still no answer.

Sasuke gave his teammate a not-so-gentle shove to get him moving.

When they got out of the hospital, Naruto started chattering away about how the Fifth Hokage had practically already endorsed him to be the Sixth Hokage and how he was going to do extra training and be the best ninja ever.

“Did Elric tell you how he escaped Itachi’s genjutsu?” Sasuke interrupted.

“No,” Naruto said. “But I haven’t asked.”

“Could you ask him?” Sasuke asked, omitting the “for me” part that usually accompanied such requests.

“I guess I could ask him, next time I see him,” Naruto said. Sasuke could hear him grinning as he continued. “Once I know how to get out of super genjutsu like that, it will be easy to kick your ass!”

Sasuke whirled and took a swing at him, but Naruto saw it coming and hopped back, still grinning.

“Naruto!” Sasuke growled.

“That’s my name, don’t wear it out!” he sang back, dodging another kick and launching his own.

Sasuke caught Naruto’s ankle and tossed him at the nearest wall. Naruto twisted in the air and hit the wall feet first. The plaster cracked and a big chunk came loose and crashed to the sidewalk. Naruto jumped away from the mess just before the door to that building swung open and a man rushed out to look at his damaged wall.

“You little bastards!” the man shouted at the two genin, shaking his fist.

Naruto smirked. “See, Sasuke, everyone else thinks you’re a bastard, too!”

“Sasuke?” the angry man said. “Uchiha Sasuke?” He took another look at Sasuke and his eyes widened. “My apologies, Mr. Uchiha,” the man mumbled. “You better clean this mess up!” he said to Naruto.

Naruto made a disgusted noise. “Up yours, jerk! Tell Mr. Uchiha to do it!” he shouted, and then took off.

Sasuke gritted his teeth and took off after Naruto. The idiot would probably forget where they were going in the first place.

Just hold very still and don’t think about it. That seemed like a good strategy. The only problem was, Ed couldn’t stop thinking about it. And when he thought about it, he moved. And when he moved, it hurt.

The pain was nowhere near as bad as when the thing was active, but it still sent little bolts of lightning into all the muscles in his back, which made his legs go numb and his breathing hitch.

So far, his attempts to get rid of the seal hadn’t gone very well. He had tried dissolving the pigment in the seal, but that set it off. His second attempt to force the pigment out of his skin had set it off as well. The third time, he had tried freezing it, and then dissolving it, but that didn’t work, either. He just woke up with frostbite across his lower back.

That had set the crazy nurses yelling at him. They’d tied him down after that, so for try number four he’d had to melt half his hospital bed to get loose, which brought the guards running, so he’d been rushed. He’d intended to melt a layer of cells out of under the seal, but the ANBU guard had jumped on him and he’d lost control of the reaction. And, of course, the seal had activated and knocked him out. He woke up in a new hospital bed in the same room. It was very frustrating.

It was also very tiring. He knew he should be getting his act together and plotting seal destruction attempt number five, but the residual pain was making it hard to think. And he was hungry, but too stubborn to ask the evil nurses for food. Plus, he didn’t want to eat anything they had handled. He’d called them some pretty unpleasant names when they had tied him down again.

He tried to keep his temper under control. This was frustrating as hell, but it was hardly the worst situation he’d ever been in. He wasn’t trapped in a room with invulnerable homunculi while his brother was being carried off for dissection. He wasn’t fighting a rogue alchemist to save the life of a childhood friend. He hadn’t even been swallowed alive by a demented eating machine with an endless sea of blood in its stomach. Really, there was no reason to fly off the handle.

It used to be so much easier to make decisions and form plans when Al was around. Or at least, when Al had to be considered. That’s mean, big brother. You’re going too far, big brother. Why don’t I talk to them this time?

Ed hated to admit it, but he desperately wanted Al’s opinion on what he should do. Half the ninja weirdos in this village claimed they were trying to help him out, and the other half were comfortable letting him know they wanted to torture him to death, or at least into submission. He had a feeling that Al would know the right thing to say even to those people to get them on his side. But the voice in the back of his head stayed silent.

Though he was sure somewhere in the universe the bastard was smirking at him, he thought, very quietly, What would Mustang do?

He’d definitely smirk more, and be an arrogant jerk. And flirt with those horrible harpies they called nurses. And he would probably have been able to talk his way out of this by playing along. He’d probably even manage to make money off this whole mess somehow. He was a much better liar than Ed.

Ed considered using the colonel’s alchemy to try to burn the seal off, but burning was slower than deconstruction, and a fast burn in a small area would be hard to control. If Ed tried it, he’d probably end up like Havoc, with his spine fried.

If I’m going to get rid of this seal, I’m going to need to know more about it. And they probably will be more inclined to tell me about this seal-chakra-crazy-shit if I stop screaming curses at them whenever they come in the room.

He sighed. Screaming curses just felt so good, though. Not as good as kicking ass would, but as they were stronger, faster, and probably armored, his feet would probably never connect. The only level he could really compete on was massive property destruction, and then he’d probably only end up ruining things for civilians.

Alright, he decided. New plan. I’ll be polite until I get this god damn seal off, and then I’m going to knock those stupid faces off that ninja mountain.

Jiraiya was not looking forward to this, but there didn’t seem to be any way around it. He’d promised Naruto. He’d been forced to promise Gai, to get the bizarre Jonin to stop giving speeches about justice and camaraderie.

“Do something for Edward,” he thought as he walked through the hospital, to the secure wing. Just don’t piss off the Hyuga, or give away the surveillance, or let Edward get loose in the village and run amuck. Keeping the brat unconscious was looking better by the minute.

The ANBU standing guard reported that Naruto and the Uchiha brat had been trying to get in to visit Ed, and had been sent to get an official permit from Tsunade. Of course, the line to speak with the Hokage was a mile long at the moment. They’d see her by next Tuesday, if someone gave them cuts.

Elric was awake and busy glaring, and rattling the bed he was tied to.

“What?” he growled.

He looked like he was going to start cursing again, but after a moment of apparent personal struggle, Ed closed his mouth.

“Certain bright-orange-and-green parties requested I take another look at your seal,” Jiraiya said.

“Another look?” Ed asked.

“I got dragged in here earlier after you’d knocked yourself out. I didn’t see any way to help you then, but maybe something will come to me,” Jiraiya said as he sank into the visitor’s chair.

“If you want to help me, untie me,” Ed said.

“You’ll just set the seal off again, and the nurses will run in here and yell at me,” Jiraiya said. “And not one of them is a looker. Now, there is a very stacked young lady down in the long-term-care ward. If she was up here yelling and waving her arms, it would set all kinds of lovely things in motion-”

He looked over at the kid. Ed had stopped rattling his bed and was gawking at Jiraiya with a very disturbed look on his face. Jiraiya realized he had been making hand gestures as he described the nurse, and settled back in the visitor’s chair. Jiraiya cleared his throat.

“So…that curse seal. If you keep messing with it, it will kill you,” Jiraiya said.

“That’s my problem, not yours,” Ed said.

Jiraiya shrugged. He got out of the chair and untied the restraints. “Don’t think you can make a break for it. You aren’t going to get past me.”

He saw the brat thinking it over. He didn’t immediately make a break for it. He supposed that was something. Jiraiya saw a paper-wrapped lump on the bedside table. He picked it up and tossed it into Ed’s lap as the teenager stretched and popped his assorted flesh and metal limbs.

“What’s this?” Ed asked, turning it over suspiciously.

“Naruto got it for you.”

“Why?”

“He was worried about you after you got turned into a kunai-cushion by Itachi. I tried to distract him by taking him to a festival, but he just went on and on about how you had gotten hurt and you might die and it was all his fault…It was very annoying. I told him to go play, but he said he was going to go win you something great. He ended up with that.”

“What is it?” Ed asked.

“He got it at a ring toss, if that gives you any clues,” Jiraiya said.

The guilt trip seemed to be working a bit. Ed looked down at the lump of paper with a very angsty expression.

Scrip, scrip, scrip!

Very carefully, Ed started to peel off the wrapping paper. He inspected each layer like he thought it might trigger an explosion. Jiraiya was actually rather fascinated by the way Ed’s metal hand grasped the delicate paper. It was just as steady and precise as his flesh-and-blood hand.

Jiraiya was just about to ask him about it when Ed got through the last layer of paper, and the little metal doll tumbled out on the bed. It bounced a few times and came to a stop against the rail. Ed just stared at it with the paper still gripped in his frozen hands. The miniature suit of armor looked back at Ed. Jiraiya could plainly see the boy was on the edge of freaking out.

Ed’s pupils were dilated. His heart was beating so loud Jiraiya could almost hear it without chakra enhancing his senses. Ed stared at the doll as if it were about to jump up and take his head off. Jiraiya wondered what the hell the problem was.

Fear of dolls? Jiraiya didn’t think that was too likely, but the brat was a whole collection of weird. According to Anko, Edward had a phobia about milk. Why not dolls? Or rattles? Or babies? Jiraiya sighed and walked to the bed, intending to take the scary doll away. But when he reached for it, Ed snatched it up. He seemed to come back to reality.

“Wh-” Ed started and then paused to gulp some air. “Where’d he get this?”

“I told you, at a ring-toss game at a festival,” Jiraiya said. “What’s the big deal?”

Ed turned the doll over carefully, inspecting it from every angle. “The helmet is a little off. There’s no tassel, but everything else is the same. It’s not possible. I don’t understand-”

“What’s there to understand?” Jiraiya asked.

“He didn’t make it across,” Ed mumbled. Suddenly he looked up at Jiraiya. “Who made this?”

“I don’t know,” Jiraiya said. “It was some cheap toy at a festival stand. Why? What does it mean?”

Jiraiya already had an idea, though. Shinobi sometimes did the same thing. They’d leave a clue in a random object that their contact was likely to come across. Usually it would be a note inside a statue at a temple or something like that. Mass-producing a toy that Edward would recognize was a bit extreme, but Jiraiya supposed it wasn’t outside the realm of possibility. It might mean one of Ed’s people was out there. It might mean leverage.

“I could probably find out where it came from,” Jiraiya said. “That is, if you want my help.”

“If you want to help, then explain chakra,” Ed said.

“What?”

“I don’t want you people in my business,” Ed said, setting the doll on his pillow. “If you want to help, and you claim you can’t do anything about this cooked-bird-seal-”

“Caged-bird-seal,” Jiraiya said.

“Whatever!” Ed said. “This seal thing, explain it to me, from the basics up. I don’t know anything about this chakra stuff. If I know more about it, I’ve got a better chance of getting rid of it.”

Jiraiya wanted to remind him that he was just going to injure himself, and that seals like that didn’t just come off. Plus, he wasn’t really supposed to teach non-shinobi the art of chakra manipulation. He supposed there was no real harm in giving him the basics, though. You could get the same information reading popular fiction.

“Chakra is a combination of physical and spiritual energy-”

“Does it arise from individual cells or is it synergistic?” Ed interrupted, as he grabbed one of his notebooks from the table, and flipped to a blank page.

“What?”

“Does a single cell possess this ‘spiritual and physical energy’, or does it only exist when multiple cells are part of a system?”

“Every cell has it, but multiple cells are required to use it,” Jiraiya said.

Ed scribbled a few notes. “Does the chakra output of an individual cell relate in any way to the heat output of the cell during normal homeostatic activities?”

“Using a lot of chakra does increase body temperature…”

Ed kept the questions coming until Jiraiya’s brain felt wrung out and numb. Ed had filled up dozens of pages with writing Jiraiya couldn’t read. And he kept right on scribbling long after Jiraiya had stopped talking. Jiraiya was about to go looking for the time he’d lost track of when something green came flying at him. He jumped back and was halfway through the seals for a katon jutsu when he realized it was Maito Gai.

“Edward! You are looking very youthful this evening!” Gai shouted.

Ed didn’t even look up from his notes. He just sort of grunted.

“Edward!” Gai tried again. “With permission from the Lady Hokage, the hospital has released you into my custody! Gather your things!”

Ed grunted something else. He had started to draw a geometric design in the book, and the flailing green ninja couldn’t seem to distract him from it.

“Edward! Don’t you wish to be released into the fresh air and sunlight of the village? To be free from this un-youthful environment, that, while essential to healing the body, leaves the spirit drained and wanting?”

Ed mumbled something else that might have been “doesn’t have resonance”, or “doesn’t have raisinettes”, but Jiraiya wasn’t entirely sure. Either way the brat kept on writing.

“Maybe you should let him finish whatever that is,” Jiraiya suggested to Gai. “He seems to think he’s made a breakthrough.”

“A breakthrough with the…” Gai trailed off, tracing strange lines in the air that Jiraiya supposed were meant to be an outline of the curse seal.

Jiraiya nodded.

“Do you really think so?” Gai asked.

“I’ve got no idea,” Jiraiya said.

Ed snapped his notebook shut with a flourish, and reached for his bag.

“Done, kid?” Jiraiya asked.

“For now,” Ed said.

“You aren’t going to screw with that thing, are you?” Jiraiya asked.

“I’ve got some more planning to do before I do. I don’t suppose I could get those Hyuga bastards to curse me up two dozen caged-bird-sealed rabbits or maybe rats. Mice would be the best match, but there isn’t much surface to work with,” Ed said as he flipped open the notebook and jotted something else down before stuffing it in his bag.

“They probably wouldn’t,” Jiraiya said. “If you did manage to pry the seal off, they’d probably do their best to kill you.”

“Kinda reinforces my earlier statement about them being all fxxed up,” Ed said.

“Language, Edward!” Gai scolded.

“I’m very relieved that you’ve calmed down, Edward,” Gai said as they walked through the village.

The teenager just grunted in response. Gai fought the urge to mention that his attitude was not very youthful, but he didn’t think that would get a very positive response at the moment. He supposed they could work on improving Edward’s attitude when he was feeling better.

Gai was a bit worried about taking Ed in, but he had to help somehow. The teenager was now the focus of multiple conspiracies, and if Gai didn’t look out for Ed’s interests, it didn’t seem like anyone would. If Ed stayed in the hospital, he’d be restrained and at the mercy of whoever had put that seal on him. If he was mobile, Gai thought some freedom would improve the boy’s chances of defending himself, or at least of summoning help if he were attacked.

Of course, this would also make Gai’s apartment a target for the dastardly villains who sought to control Ed. Gai knew his apprentice Lee would be put in danger, especially in his injured state. He’d asked Lee if he had objections to letting Ed stay with them. Lee had said ‘no,’ of course, but he doubted Lee would speak against one of his sensei’s ideas, even if his opinion was different.

Edward’s pace was slow, even for a civilian’s. He refused Gai’s offer to carry him. He insisted on carrying his own bag, too. He seemed worried Gai would take it, which was a bit insulting. Gai was not a thief, but if he wanted to steal it, Ed was not in any condition to stop him. Gai had to admit he was a bit tempted to take Edward’s notebooks away. Whatever Jiraiya had inspired him to write was probably going to turn into another painful failure to remove the seal.

Ed also insisted on carrying a small action figure in the crook of his left arm. Gai didn’t think that having that thing out was slowing them down, but carrying a toy around like that was a little too youthful in Gai’s opinion.

After an eternity of walking, they got to Gai’s apartment complex, and climbed the steps to the second floor. Gai hadn’t been able to find a ground floor apartment that he liked, so he had had to pay for the floors to be reinforced so he and Lee could continue to increase their training weights. Ed managed to trip over the slightly raised frame as he walked through the door.

Gai expected Lee to be there to greet their guest, but he was not in the living room, and Gai could sense no trace of him in the apartment. He saw a note stuck to the refrigerator. It only said “went to training ground three”, but Gai recognized it as Lee’s writing. He was a bit disturbed by his student’s antisocial action, but he did his best to cover it.

“Welcome to my most youthful residence!” Gai announced. “It may not be cool and modern like some apartments, but it has all the amenities needed for vigorous exercise and other such youthful pursuits!”

Edward took a moment to look around. His eyes slid over assorted weight machines and the bookshelves filled with health literature. His face lacked enthusiasm.

“You don’t have a TV or a radio?” Ed asked.

“No,” Gai said. “The neighbors complained about the noise coming from my apartment, so I got rid of those noisy modern contraptions. The strange thing is, they still complain. I suppose the offending sounds were from another apartment.”

Ed stared at him for a minute, but Gai didn’t understand why.

“The bathroom is through there,” he said, continuing the tour. “That is my room. My most wonderful student Lee resides in that room. You might cohabitate with him, or occupy this most youthful futon!” Gai said, pointing at one of the few exercise-less pieces of furniture in the room.

“I guess this is closer,” Ed said.

He flopped down on the futon without unfolding it, and passed out.

Gai watched for a concerned moment, but it seemed to be a natural, if sudden, sleep. He went to the window and looked out. He couldn’t see the squad of ANBU the Hokage had assigned to help watch Ed, but he could sense them out there. There was no sign of Lee, though.

Lee knew his sensei was mad at him, but Gai didn’t remark on his absence when Lee returned to the apartment a little past midnight. Gai just explained the new security protocols in place. Lee had nodded without really taking the information in. His eyes were drawn to Ed’s not-so-softly snoring form, flopped out on a futon by the weight bench. He had excused himself for a moment, fetched a blanket from his room, and tossed it over the older boy. Gai had complemented Lee for his thoughtfulness and hospitality, but in truth, Lee just couldn’t stand seeing Ed’s artificial limbs. Lee went to bed hoping Ed would run from the village again, and be gone in the morning.

The next morning he was still there, asleep and oblivious as Lee went through his new morning routine of rewrapping bandages and braces, taking medicines, and doing physical therapy exercises that didn’t seem to be helping. Gai was up already, lifting weights. Normally he would be out running laps around the village, but he didn’t want to go out before Neji and Tenten arrived. Gai didn’t mention that Lee could not even catch up to Ed if he ran.

When his teammates did arrive, Gai attempted to wake Edward for introductions, but yelling and shaking had no apparent effect. Tenten suggested dumping a bucket of water on the stubbornly unconscious boy, but Gai vetoed the idea. He explained that Ed was a challenge to get along with under good circumstances. And even without cold water, things were not going to be easy.

“Our mission today requires the utmost discretion,” Gai said. “I must ask you not to discuss this with anyone,

not your families, friends, or even your eternal rivals!”

Gai told his team about Ed coming to Naruto’s aid, and about his injuries. He told them of Ed’s stay in the hospital and his misunderstanding within the interrogation department. They had all heard about what happened to the tower and the interrogation department, and it was hard to miss the damaged village walls. Gai then told them about Ed being recaptured after he aided team eight, and about him being marked with a caged-bird-seal while he was unconscious in the hospital.

Neji said his uncle Hiashi had mentioned the incident to him, and had already explained that aspect of the mission. Lee wondered if the uncle had given Neji any additional orders regarding Ed. Gai opened his mouth, probably to ask about that, when a message bird tapped on the window. Gai opened the window and the bird chirped out a code that meant there was an A-rank mission waiting for him at the tower, and that he had to report in immediately.

“I must deal with this now,” Gai said. “I trust all of you to guard Edward until I get back. But do not worry. I won’t be gone long. If I do not finish this mission in less than a day, I will do one thousand spin-kicks in a row without stopping. It’s a promise!”

“Is there anything else we should know about this guy?” Tenten asked.

“Just treat him like a client on a bodyguard mission. Respect him, but don’t let him get in trouble. If you come across a situation you can’t handle, call in the ANBU. They are shadowing Edward as well. Any other questions, my students?” Gai asked, as he rushed around the apartment, gathering equipment.

A minute later Gai was rushing out the door. Ed continued to snore.

“So is there anything you can tell us about him?” Tenten asked Lee.

“He yells a lot. He likes to argue, even with people who could easily kill him,” Lee said. “I think he wants to die.”

Tenten didn’t look like she agreed. “Why would he want to die?”

“He’s missing half his limbs,” Lee said, using his crutch to drag Ed’s blanket away, and expose his metal arm. “Would you want to live like that?”

“Just because somebody yells a lot doesn’t mean they want to die. Besides, he’s not even that messed up. He’s got those cool metal prosthetics. Maybe he’s like Naruto. He just doesn’t know when to quit,” Tenten said.

“Maybe he should,” Lee said. “I’m going to the training grounds.”

“But we’re on a mission!” Tenten said.

“You and Neji are on a mission. I’m not even a ninja right now,” Lee said.

“It’s hardly a mission at all! All we have to do is sit around and watch him. Even you could do that,” Tenten said, and then clamped her mouth shut, apparently realizing she’d been a little too honest. “I mean, while you’re on medical leave. I didn’t mean…”

“I’m going to the training grounds,” Lee repeated.

He hobbled out, and she didn’t try to stop him. He didn’t look at Neji at all.

-

The room still felt tense, even after Lee’s surprising exit. Tenten supposed it sort of made sense for Lee to want to avoid Ed. After all, he was a warped version of Lee in some ways, though his limbs were missing instead of just being crippled. It wasn’t very professional behavior, though.

Tenten was sure this was going to be a bad kind of mission. It was going to grate nerves and strain friendships. She sighed. It was probably going to end up driving them all crazy.

As if on cue, Neji started acting strange as well. He took a seat at Gai’s kitchen table, and started fiddling with his hair. She was about to mention it, when Neji took off his headband, and set it down with a clink. Then he took off his hair tie, and then he unwound his bandages. He sat with his forehead exposed. His caged-bird-seal was impossible to miss, and she couldn’t stop staring at it.

He’d never intentionally shown it to her. The only time she’d seen the mark before was when he went a bit nuts at the chunin exam and showed it to Naruto. She thought maybe she should say something, but the only sentence that tried to come out of her mouth was, “It’s like you’re naked.”

Tenten sat down on a weight bench and took out one of her weapons scrolls. She summoned up a couple of things to sharpen, and then a couple more. Neji just sat there at the table with his naked forehead hanging out as she filed edges. Ed remained oblivious, adding snores over the scratching and scraping sounds. She got through the entire thing before Ed started to stir. She checked the clock. It was almost noon.

Ed rolled off the futon onto the tile floor, and his arm clanked. He jerked upright in surprise and looked around, blinking and squinting.

“Why am I at the gym?” he asked blearily.

“You aren’t,” Tenten said. “You’re at Gai-sensei’s place, remember?”

“Uh, right,” Ed said. “Who are you?”

“I’m Tenten, Gai told us to keep you out of trouble while he takes care of some mission,” she said. “That’s Hyuga Neji.”

Ed didn’t whirl at the word Hyuga, but his lips pulled back from his teeth, like a dog about to bark. He turned very slowly. Tenten saw his fists were clenched. His eyes seemed to slide right over Neji’s face to the mark on his forehead. He flinched back, and choked on whatever it was he was going to say. After a moment of throat clearing, he produced a weak ‘hello’.

Neji fought the urge to leap from his seat and demand answers, or theories, or whatever it was Elric had that made him think he could get a caged-bird-seal off. Neji didn’t jump, though. He had hope now. Naruto had given him hope, or rather, Naruto had forced hope down his throat. But Neji couldn’t depend on it.

So instead of asking Elric about the seal, he said “Gai-sensei believes you are in danger.”

“That’s not exactly news,” Elric said as he got up.

He yawned and turned in a slow circle before grabbing up his bag and heading for the bathroom. The toilet flushed and the sink ran, and then the shower was turned on.

Neji activated his Byakugan and then walked to the living room window. Edward had crawled out the bathroom window and was hanging by one hand from the sill, apparently choosing a landing spot.

“Get back inside,” Neji ordered.

“And quit wasting water!” Tenten added, leaning out next to him.

“You were spying on me in the shower?” Ed demanded, acting very offended.

“You were not in the shower,” Neji said.

“I could’ve been.”

“If you wish to be supervised in the shower, then please keep up this immature behavior,” Neji said.

Ed scowled, but climbed back inside. They heard the shower curtain move and this time there was the sound of water hitting a body. Ten minutes later, Edward returned to the living room in black pants and a red tank top, wringing water from his hair. Neji had looked through Ed’s bag, and hadn’t seen a red tank top in there, but it wasn’t the kind of thing Lee or Gai would leave around for him to borrow.

“You use your Alchemy to alter your clothes?” Neji asked.

Ed shrugged, clapped his hands together, and then ran them through his hair. There were a few blue sparks as the water evaporated and drifted away.

“Alchemy has a million uses,” Ed said as he pulled his now-dry hair back and started braiding it. “It can change pigments in fabric dye, decrease pressure to speed up evaporation. The only thing it seems not to want to do at the moment is dissolve seals out of skin.”

“The seal is linked to your chakra. That is much more important than the ink particles that remain in your skin,” Neji said.

“That’s what they’ve been telling me,” Ed said, his eyes drifting to Neji’s forehead. “How long have you had that?”

“Since I was four.” Neji said.

Ed scowled at that. “They burn that thing onto little kids?”

“If they waited until we were adults, we might say no,” Neji said.

“And no one in power, not the Hokage or whatever is doing anything about this?” Ed asked.

“No one with power would risk losing their power just to help our branch of the clan,” Neji said. “Uzumaki Naruto has sworn to end the vile practice when he becomes Hokage…but that will not be any time soon.”

“So Queen Boob the Fifth doesn’t mind the whole slavery thing?” Ed said.

“Her name is Tsunade, not Queen Boob!” Tenten shouted angrily. “She can’t do anything about it without losing the support of a major clan. The village is unstable as it is. If she starts messing with one clan, the others will turn against her. Things will fall apart and the other villages are just waiting to move in and finish us off. Besides, she’s only been the Hokage for a couple of days. She can’t just snap her fingers and make everything better.”

Neji didn’t think Tsunade would raise the issue at all during her reign as Hokage. None of her predecessors had. A few of the cadet branch elders said they thought the Fourth Hokage might have helped free them of the seal, but people usually talked about the Fourth as if he made gold rain from the sky on alternate Tuesdays. Neji decided to interrupt before Ed could further insult Tenten’s idol.

“Our clan was divided between the main and cadet branches before we joined Leaf village. It was a condition of our joining that no one in Leaf interfere with clan traditions. The first Kage of Leaf needed our strength more than righteousness.”

“What does a village of killers-for-hire need righteousness for?” Ed asked.

Neji couldn’t come up with an answer for him. He supposed people who killed for a living couldn’t really expect the gods of fate to go easy on them. He supposed Ed didn’t share the opinion most people in the elemental countries had, about ninja being a necessary evil. Even if Ed did figure out how to get the seal off, would he be willing to share it with the branch Hyuga? Neji wanted to ask, but wasn’t really sure how. He usually didn’t have to ask for things. And Tenten’s presence made things more difficult. If he started asking Ed to help his half of the clan break away from Main branch’s control and Ed did it, it could lead to a civil war in Leaf. He didn’t honestly know if Tenten would choose to help him, given the risk to the village.

Ed broke the silence. “What’s there to eat around here?”

It was like a nightmare.

There was nothing but health food in every cabinet. Protein bars, high fiber cereal, 15 kinds of nutritional shake powder. There wasn’t even a bowl of sugar to serve with tea. The refrigerator wasn’t any better. Yolk-less omelet mix, tofu, vegetables, salad, and of course, Ed’s nemesis, milk.

“How can people live like this?” Ed shouted.

He thought it might be possible to transmute something edible out of the horror that was Gai’s pantry, but that would be a lot of thinking and he didn’t have any sugar to make his brain work.

“Screw this!” he declared, marching to the door.

“Hey, where are you going?” Tenten asked.

“I’m going to find food.”

“There’s food here,” she said.

“We have very different ideas about what food is,” Ed said.

“You stay here. We’ll order some takeout,” she said.

“I don’t know what I want yet,” Ed said.

“Gai told us to keep you out of trouble,” Tenten said.

“I’m not going to get in trouble going from here to a restaurant!” Ed said.

“Lee was right,” Neji said. “You do like to yell.”

Neji got up, put his headband back on and went to open the door.

“We’re taking him outside?” Tenten asked.

“Do you really want to be cooped up with him in Gai-sensei’s apartment for the rest of the day?”

She sighed, and got up to follow. Ed didn’t know if he should celebrate or be suspicious of their sudden acquiescence.

They got a few strange looks walking down the street. Ed’s wanted posters were still up, but Neji and Tenten’s presence kept people from screaming for the police.

Ed really didn’t want to waste time transmuting something to sell at a pawn shop, so he just went up to the first occupied-but-damaged shop and offered a straight up trade.

Ed repaired the roof of a dumpling stand in exchange for carton full that a cook was preparing outside on a camp stove. He resurrected the Dango Palace in exchange for the promise of future free eats. The shopkeeper at the Tapioca Bar gave all three of them free drinks when Ed fixed their shattered front window, and as they were walking away, the owner of Turn-a-New-Leaf grill dragged Ed away to fix their reserve dining room, which a giant Akimichi had accidentally stepped on while fighting an equally giant snake. By the time Ed finished with that, an entire mob of people looking to trade food for Alchemy had formed on the block.

The crowd seemed to make Neji and Tenten nervous, but Ed wasn’t all that concerned. He didn’t think the jerk and/or jerks that put the seal on him were planning to run up to him and stab him. And all these people running around cheering as he fixed things would probably help him out later, if he needed them to turn a blind eye when he eventually made his escape.

He looked over at Neji. Ed was pretty sure the younger teenager meant to imply he was on Ed’s side of the whole “escape the caged-bird-seal” issue, but he hadn’t come right out and said it. Of course, saying it might count as treason or some such thing. Maybe he was worried the girl would turn him in, or that Gai’s apartment was bugged or something. Ed decided he would try to slip the kid a note later.

“Do you do this often?” Neji asked as they were swept towards a very large condemned hotel by a small army of out-of-work maids.

In Amestris, Ed hadn’t been as generous with his Alchemy. Most of his large-scale alchemic repairs were to things he’d broken, or things that were damaged in fights he’d been involved in. Except for the mining town in Youswell, or the storm-damaged buildings in Resembool, or those houses the military “accidently” trashed…But most of those incidents were things Al told him to fix. Of course, considering the power source he was unknowingly tapping in Amestris, maybe his miserliness was for the best. But now it didn’t matter, since he’d corrected the flaw in the formula.

“I usually don’t work on this kind of scale,” Ed said. “Of course, most places I’ve been haven’t been trashed in a ninja war.”

“I mean, asking so little in exchange for repairs worth millions,” Neji said.

“I can make almost anything I need,” Ed said. “What do I need a bunch of stamped paper for?”

“Couldn’t you also make food?” Neji asked, raising his voice so Ed could hear him over the shouting, chattering maids, who were excessively happy about regaining the opportunity to turn down sheets and clean bathrooms.

“I could, but it doesn’t taste very good,” Ed said.

“That part I understand,” Tenten said. “But I want to know what the hell you plan to do with the 10,000 hotel pillow mints they’re trading you.”

“I plan to give up brushing my teeth,” Ed said.

The ANBU squad had been shadowing them the entire time, but never moved in to help, even when the crush of people made the genin security team next-to-useless. After getting his hair caught in a pushy civilian’s jacket zipper for the third time, Neji declared it was time to go home. Ed didn’t object to leaving. He looked rather worn out, but he started out that way, too. Ed did object to Tenten and Neji grabbing his arms and picking him up for a chakra-assisted jump to the roof of the nearest building.

Neither Gai nor Lee were at the apartment when they returned. Neji scanned the floors and walls, but no spy devices had been added while they were out, nor any traps laid. Ed put his bags of food in Gai’s refrigerator, and on the counter, and in the cabinets, and on the lat machine. Apparently unable to think of other things to do, he returned to his futon. The alchemist flopped down and went back to sleep.

“He must be worn out,” Tenten muttered, rolling her eyes. “He was awake for a whole three hours.” Neji looked at her and she shifted a little nervously. “Of course, he did all that repair stuff. That must’ve used up a lot of chakra.”

“I was watching,” Neji said. “It used none at all.”

“Oh,” she said. “Has his seal done anything?”

“No, it remains dormant.”

She nodded and sat down at Gai’s kitchen table. She yawned as she took out another weapons scroll and summoned up a blade to sharpen. “I shouldn’t have eaten so much of that free mochi,” she said. “I’m having a total carb crash.”

“Perhaps not,” Neji agreed as he walked behind her towards the other chair.

His hand darted out, and tapped the back of her neck. She slumped unconscious. Neji carefully arranged her arms on the table, and then rested her head on them. If he was lucky, she’d think she drifted off to sleep on her own. If not, it couldn’t be helped.

His Byakugan had been active for most of their outing in the village, but he ignored the ache in his eyes, and activated it again. The ANBU were all still in position outside. They didn’t seem aware of the activity in Gai’s apartment. Perhaps they were just giving Neji enough rope to hang himself with. That couldn’t be helped, either.

He knelt down next to Ed’s futon and shook his shoulder. When that didn’t elicit a response, Neji pulled the pillow out of under the older teen’s head and whacked him with it. Ed muttered a few curses and sat up.

“What?”

“I think we may be able to help each other.”

Gai was nearly falling down with exhaustion as he climbed the steps to his apartment. The ANBU were still stationed outside, and they didn’t flag him down with a report, so he assumed nothing too extreme had occurred.

Neji opened the door before Gai could even reach for the knob. Lee was sitting at the weight bench, raising and lowering a dumbbell with his good arm. Ed was seated backwards in one of the kitchen chairs with his shirt rolled up, and Tenten stood behind him, pressing a gauze pad to his back.

“He’s not allowed in the bathroom by himself anymore,” Tenten said.

Gai rushed to inspect the wound. A thin crescent of flesh was missing directly beneath the seal, and blood was oozing continuously from it. The mark itself remained intact. Gai looked a bit closer and saw what looked like chakra burns dotting the skin around the mark. They corresponded to where he knew tenketsu points to be. He looked over at Neji.

“He waited until we were distracted, and attempted to melt off the seal. It activated,” Neji said. “I attempted to deactivate it by shutting down several chakra points, but it did not work.”

Neji was good at hiding all emotions and expressions, but Gai could tell his student was lying.

“Why didn’t you take him to the hospital?” Gai asked.

“He woke up shortly after the seal deactivated,” Neji said. “And the self-inflicted injury to his skin is superficial.”

“Except it won’t stop bleeding,” Tenten said.

“It’s fine,” Ed said. “Just tape the bandage down and it will stop.”

“It will soak through like the last one,” she said.

“It’s fine,” Ed repeated.

“How long ago did this happen?” Gai asked.

“About an hour,” Tenten said. “I think.”

“You think?” he asked.

“I fell asleep,” Tenten admitted guiltily.

“I was at the training grounds,” Lee said, apparently trying to draw the blame to himself.

“It was exactly fifty-seven minutes ago,” Neji said. “I noticed the chakra spike when he set off the seal. Unfortunately, I was not able to find the seal’s anchor.”

Gai nodded. “If the bleeding doesn’t stop in the next thirty minutes, I will take him to the hospital.”

“I’m not going back there!” Ed interrupted.

“You will,” Gai said. “If you continue to put yourself at risk, I will bring you back there and help the nurses restrain you. I have sworn to protect you, even from yourself.”

“I don’t want your protection!” Ed said. “I just want you all to leave me the hell alone!”

Gai loomed. He knew it was an unyouthful thing to do, but he had to get his point across. “If you were strong enough and fast enough to defend yourself from ninja, then what you want would matter.”

Ed looked ready to curse and scream, but suddenly he slumped in his chair. “I’m not going back,” he muttered crossing his arms and looking at the floor.

Gai supposed that was as much of a concession as he was likely to get. He decided to drop the matter for now. He told Tenten to tape the bandage on. Ed wandered back to his futon and took out one of his notebooks. Gai went to unpack his mission equipment, and by the time he was done, Neji had finished writing up the daily things-Edward-did report. Gai noticed Neji didn’t mention what he’d described as an attempt to shut down the seal. Gai signed off on it anyway, and sent Neji and Tenten to deliver it before they went home for the night.

The Village Hidden in Sound…

Kabuto did not want to be the one to deliver this news, especially with the stains from the last messenger still on the walls and floor. Still, it had to be done, and he would probably survive his master’s temper-tantrum. And he had some interesting news to balance with.

Orochimaru was still in his very secure, very stuffy sleeping chambers. The room had no windows and trapped the stench of his decaying arms almost completely. Kabuto could taste the putrescence on his tongue as he knocked on the door and entered. The snake lord turned to glare at him, but didn’t immediately throw a destructive jutsu his way.

“My lord, the surveillance teams were taken out by Leaf nin before they could get out of Fire country,” Kabuto said as pleasantly as he could. He stayed well out of reach.

“Both of them?” Orochimaru hissed.

“Yes, and their monitor too,” Kabuto said. “Three survived and were taken to the interrogation department. Our agents don’t know if they’ve been broken yet, but-”

“It does not matter. They knew nothing of my plans,” he hissed.

“They were taken out by a genin team,” Kabuto said.

“Sasuke’s?”

“No, just a few of his classmates,” Kabuto said casually. “Apparently the genin had just captured the fugitive who stole the Hokage tower, and ran into our teams. Bad luck, I suppose.”

“What about the tower?”

“The latest news out of Leaf is that they’ve captured a short, loud, half-mechanical teenager, who rearranges buildings when he’s upset. He’s repaired a lot of the civilian buildings we damaged during the invasion, but he’s sunk the Hokage tower and the interrogation department into the ground. He’s also melted numerous holes in the village walls.”

Orochimaru had meant to either destroy or occupy the tower himself. He did not seem happy with the news that someone else had already defiled it.

“There’s also a rumor going around that he is completely resistant to genjutsu, including those cast with the Sharingan,” Kabuto added.

“Impossible,” Orochimaru said.

Kabuto shrugged. “I am simply repeating what I heard from our agents.”

“Have the Sound Four look into it. If they can bring this-”

“Edward Elric,” Kabuto supplied.

“Have them bring Elric to me, if they can do it without disrupting my schedule for Sasuke,” Orochimaru said.

“If Elric proves the Sharingan can be defeated, is it even worth the effort to retrieve Sasuke?” Kabuto asked.

“Are you questioning me?” Orochimaru asked.

“Of course not, my lord,” Kabuto said. “I was just…thinking out loud. Perhaps we should send a separate team for Elric. It would at least draw some attention away from your plans for Sasuke.”

“And who do you suggest I send?”

“Kimimaro hasn’t been out in a while.”

Author’s note: Sorry this took forever and a half. I had to keep rewriting things, and I tried to put in a fight scene, but then I had to take it back out, and it was all driving me nuts. There were also a lot of plot points that I had to get in so the story could progress, and they kept bogging things down. I know there wasn’t much Naruto this chapter. He’ll be around a lot more in the next one, and there will be fights, too. And candy. Free candy. Um, yeah. Anyway, don’t forget to review.