Ranma 1/2, FullMetal Alchemist and a Multicross after those main two. Characters will be slightly OoC as I'm still getting used to writing again as evident with my other story down there. I hope it's not so bad that I get flamed.

Also, Post Manga Ranma, Chapter 99 of FMA for Ed.

You'll notice that I tend to rely a lot on character dialogue to get my points across. I'm trying to tone it down and hopefully it won't be as bad past this first chapter.

Anyway, this will be kind of like Sliders with a bit of time travel. Ranma and Ed are the main characters, though Ryoga will show up thanks to him getting lost, and Alphonse may make an appearance.

Also note that this fic is rated M for a reason, though this first chapter isn't going to really show it. Things will get violent and descriptive later on once I get my groove back as that's pretty much the thing I'm best at writing. If you don't like mature situations or immature responses to mature situations, you might as well head out pretty quickly.

Further notes at the bottom of this chapter and all there after.

A Moment Gone Awry

In Japan: Nerima Ward

"No more." a voice hissed lowly, a man sitting in the shadows surrounded only by candlelight. "No more will I put up with you and the way you steal her attentions." There were crude markings drawn around him, a pallid visage of the homespun sorceror. He was Hikaru Gosunkugi and he was not a happy person. The main reason for his unpleaseantness was Ranma Saotome, which in Nerima, par for the course. Normally the boy would be using Voodoo, and dolls to get his point across, yet his newest purchase was begging to be used and it was finally the right time, after months and months of waiting. Tonight was the night, after all, the energy coming from a violent meteor shower would be perfect for the use of this one spell.

Right?

It didn't matter either way to Gosunkugi, as he pulled out the scroll and spread it out before him on his legs. "You'll be gone for good this time, Saotome." he cackled with glee, ignoring the fact that parts of the scroll were scratched out. As the meteor storm went overhead at well after 2 AM in the morning, Hikaru Gosunkugi started to chat, badly mangling the ancient scriipture and making it up as he went. Hell, if it only half worked, there'd be no problem what so ever. At the end, he pressed his hands together and pressed them down onto the circle he had drawn.

Not but a few moments later, his candles flared and left him in the darkness, the spell finished, leaving the pale boy laughing in glee and madness.

On the other side of town, Ranma Saotome, the recipient of the spell was pulled down into a portal of darkness by shadowy hands, slipping away into his newfound banishment while completely sleep the entire time. All that was left was the floor of which he slept upon next to his father. A single note, magically placed was left in his wake. No one would read it until morning, and by then, there would have been no way to find Ranma, even if they had believed what it had said.

When all was said and done, there would be many people pissed off at Ranma, after all, everything was his fault. It didn't matter that he was the one spirited away, it never mattered that it really was never his fault or idea for things to happen. It sure didn't matter that he was the one that almost always fixed things either. Nope. The ungrateful boy would have to be found so he could apologize for running away. Of course, there were only two people in the Tendo Dojo that really believed that Ranma would do the right thing and he wasn't at fault. One was the usual suspect, the other was to be a stark surprise in Genma Saotome.

Amestris: Central

Edward Elric, the FullMetal Alchemist, went wide-eyed at what was going on. He was really at a loss for words. To many details had escaped him, and just now as the Five-point Alchemy circle was engaged, he finally knew what was going on. Comprehension hit him like a brick to the face. He could feel the energy fluctuating in the air and he cursed to himself as he tried to steady his stance, it was then that Ed noticed the giant eyeball sporuting up from the floor was the cause of his imbalance. "What is this?!"

He bit back a curse, the eye was the same as Pride's shadows and the same as Truth from The Gate. Without thinking, he slapped his hands together, reverting the blade on his auto-mail arm and repeating the motion and slamming both hands down onto the eye. This was his last chance to evade the enemy, but as his body started to deconstruct, he wasn't sure if he would be able to get away or if he really was being teleported away. 'Shitshitshit.' Ed swore mentally, looking around at the people that were surrounding him as he disappeared into the void of darkness.

The next thing the older Elric brother knew was that he was falling, endlessly falling towards two gates. One was his destination, already half open, arms reaching out to grab him. He was to be one of the sacrifies, but Edward refused to become a pawn in some sick and twisted game played by those damn Homonculi. Using his limbs to hit himself and force his way to the closed door, he eventually made a little progress as it loomed closer. Twisting and turning to avoid the hands, he crashed into the door, forcing it to open and he disappeared past the veil.

"I'll be back you bastard!" he yelled out as his body started to deconstruct once more in the darkness. "You better wait! I'll kill you you!" he snarled out as the rest of his body deconstructed for the second time in bare moments.

Further underground, Izumi Curtis landed carefully as her body reconstructed, Alphone Elric's armored container landed on the ground, crashing lifelessles. Edward Elric was supposed to reconstruct and fall next...yet nothing came.

The Elemental Countries: Land of Fire, Konohagakure (The Hidden Village of the Leaf)

"Hokage-sama."

The voice caused The Fifth Hokage, Tsunade Senju to blink a few times, having fallen asleep in a nap from all the paperwork. "What?" she grumbled, pushing herslef fully into her chair.

"There's been a disturbance just beyond the gates." The monotone voice said from the shadows, an ANBU just giving a report.

"Define disturbance for me." Tsunade mumbled, raising a blonde eyebrow and rubbing her temples a little as she sat back in her large chair.

"There we some shadows opening up from the ground, hands pushing up a boy sleeping on a futon mat." The ANBU member said softly. "It was directly in the middle of the pathway for at the main gate and the boy seems to be snoring."

"Seriously?" She was fully awake now. Portals just didn't open up and push people out like that. "Does he look like he's from the village?"

"No, Hokage-sama. The records have already been looked over, he's not in any records or the Bingo book either." the voice continued to respond as if out of the middle of nowhere.

"Alright. Keep an eye out and inform me the moment he wakes up. Contact Shizune and have her go take a look as well. It might just be a trap, or it might just be something completely innocent." Tsunande shrugged after a moment's thought. "Dismi..." she was cut off as she felt another presence join with the first ANBU member.

"Hokage-sama, there's been a second event at the gates. A blonde child has fallen out of a gate in the middle of the air." The second ANBU, this one female, said.

"A gate?" Tsunande said, pushing her chair back and standing up.

"Yes Hokage-sama, the gate opened up at about 9 metres in the air. I was the only one that got a look at it, we were all concentrating on the other boy when I felt something...wrong...in the air." The female ANBU said.

"Explain." The first ANBU disappeared after that, leaving only the hidden presence of the second.

"It was as if a my entire body was doused in ice water and then shocked with several shocks. It was a darkness like the first portal the first boy was pushed out of, just larger." the ANBU said quietly, her voice going low as if in contemplation. "I came as soon as I saw the boy falling, he may need medical attention. Also, his trajectory was taking him onto the first boy."

"I think I'm getting a migraine." Tsunande mumbled, half jokingly. "Alright. I guess I better..." she trailed off, sensing a third presence. "Now what is it?"

"Sorry, Hokage-sama, but it seems like the two boys are fighting each other now. The second fell upon the first, waking him up. I believe they're caught in the moment and don't realize what is going on. They don't seem to be aware of their surroundings." Another female voice this time. "They both seem to be adept at Taijutsu too."

"Alright, is Guy back from his mission with his team?" Tsunande muttered, starting to get annoyed. She really doubted he was too, it'd be just her day.

"Not as of yet. Hatake Kakashi-sempai is however." The second had spoken.

"Contact him, get him to meet up with Shizune at the gates and try to get these boys to stop fighting." Tsunande paused and nodded to herself. "Also, make sure a hospital room is ready, just in case. If I'm needed, contact me and I'll make my way there."

"As you wish, Hokage-sama." both said and disappeared, leaving Tsunande alone with her paperwork.

"This week is starting to suck." she mumbled, pulling a flask out of one of her desk drawers, uncorking it swiftly and taking a swig. "What else can go wrong? At least the brat is gone so he won't bug me for missions." She mused slightly. It was time to check up on Sakura's latest bit of training too. More than likely she'd almost be finished with the latest test.

Outside of the Gates:

Ranma Saotome was peacefully sleeping, blissfully unaware as he rolled over onto his side, grunting at the bit of bright like. "Pops, close the blinds..." he mumbled. He didn't realize he was no longer at the Tendo Dojo, nor did he realize he was on the ground. It wasn't much different from the floor after all. Of course, the screaming voice, yelling from the sky woke him up out of his dreaming reverie, though not suddenly enough as he felt something land beside him, something hitting his arm and shoving him out of his bedding.

It wasn't the boot out of the window he was used to, no, the feeling jolting into his arm was hard, falling from above, not booting from behind.

Just a moment before, Edward Elric was reconstructed as the gate opened, he was facing head first towards the ground. "Oh hell no!" he shouted out, wincing as he saw he was about to land on some guy. He didn't have enough time to twist his body from only 9 metres so that he could land on his feet. "Oh, Winry's gonna kill me..." he muttered as he shifted his right arm ahead of him so that hit auto-mail would take the impact and hopefully he wouldn't land on the poor guy. Why the hell he was sleeping in the middle of the ground didn't even register.

Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, the impact threw Ed off balance and he half landed on the mysterious person, breaking his fall. He pushed off, accidentally pushing the person from his bedding as well. More concerned about his arm, he twisted and rotated it to check and there seemed to be no damage. "Whew...that was close." he sighed with relief.

"What the hell was that for?!" Ed heard the voice from behind.

"Hey, relax, it was an accident." Ed muttered in response, turning and looking at the guy. He was taller than Ed, enough so that it caused his eyebrow to twitch. He was also more muscular to boot. Of all the damn look from where the Gate had sent him.

"Bullshit. I don't take kindly to being woken up. Especially on Sundays!" Ranma snarled out, looking down at the blonde person before him. There seemed to be something off with his Ki, it felt different, and he knew he shouldn't be goading the guy into a fight, but he could tell the one before him was a decent Martial Artist, though the bunches of bruises and cuts here and there were something someone shouldn't be wearing after just simple combat.

"Sunday? What the hell? It's a Tuesday, you idiot." Ed said in a snarl.

"I'm not an idiot you shrimp." Ranma said back, accidentally finding the right button to push.

"WHO THE HELL ARE YOU CALLING A MICROSCOPIC MIDGET SO SMALL YOU COULD STEP ON?!?" Edward yelled, forgetting he was just in a fight and launching himself directly at the guy in front of him. His right fist curled up, launching itself towards the taller boy's face.

"Midget." Ranma said simply, bending to the side, looking at the mechanical fist. There was something very off about the limb, the entire thing up his shoulder felt wrong, he could only see up a little into the shorter person's red jacket and it all seemed mechanical. "Short stuff." he muttered out with a girn as he swayed to the side to avoid a kick from the boy's left leg. It felt the same way to Ranma. "You'll never hit me like that, Tiny." He was awake now and using his most practiced move. 'Saotome Style Trash Talking.'

"Why you son of a bitch." Ed swore at the taller guy, throwing out a few more attacks, kicks, feights, punches. Nothing seemed to connect, they were coming close though. Not even a centimetre away from the taller one. He started to swear louder as he upped the pace and stopped being nice about his attacks, ignoring the pain from his, well to him, minor wounds.

Ranma started to notice not but a few attacks later, this guy was trying to take him down for real. Semi-lethal attacks that were assuredly meant to stop an enemy from moving. 'He's got experience in real fights. To bad I'm better.' Ranma grinned, in a straight fist-fight, no one could beat him, he was the best after all. However, it was time to experiment and a few punches later, Ranma tapped a few places on the smaller one's right arm the moment it came. He frowned at the feeling. It wasn't flesh at all, pressure points weren't working with that.

Ed's eyes however, widened slightly, he could feel the taps and he knew exactly what they were, suddenly he was thankfully he attacked with his right arm instead of his left that last time. 'I think I'm out of my league in a fist fight.' The thought was bitter but contained a bit of respect. After all, he was Edward Elric, genius Alchemist and he knew the human body inside and out. He knew those pressure points were meant to put his arm completely out of use, thankfully it was auto-mail. To prove his theory, he decided to launch a spinkick at the other's face with his left leg and wasn't surprised when he felt the raven-haired teen tapping the leg pressure points that were meant to do the same.

Ranma's fingers were tapping with practiced ease, and he felt the exact same thing and with that he nodded. The leg was the same as that metal fist, and he was allowed to test that last one out, he could tell. The shorty had given that attack free of charge and Ranma suddenly had a little more respect for the guy. Of course, he was a bit miffed that he didn't get to sleep in, but he did suppose it might not have been his fault. Speaking of which...

"Where the hell am I anyway?" Ranma muttered out loud, parrying an attack to try and push the shorter one off balance. "This doesn't look like Japan."

"Hell if I know, this sure isn't Central." Edward responded with his own frown. It was a good question. "Edward Elric." he said, throwing another punch, now it felt like he was sparring with Alphonse.

"Ranma Saotome." Ranma responded to Ed. "It would seem we have an audience too." he grumbled, using d's final attack, a kick, responding with his own lifted foot to use as a spring board and launch himself back towards his bed. He also realized he was just wearing an undershirt and some pajama pants, suddenly glad he didn't sleep in just boxers.

"We've had one since I fell from the sky." Ed said, looking towards the strangely dressed...people...in various masks, they looked vaguely ceramic to him too, well, some of them anyway.

Two of them stood out from the rest in that they weren't wearing cloaks and masks. One was a woman of middling height, again taller than Elric, (Why the hell is everyone taller than me!? -Ed), with black hair and dark eyes. She was looking at them guardedly. She was wearing somewhat nondescript clothing, and from the way she stood, she was probably hiding weapons in there. The second one had silver-gray hair, dressed in a bodysuit, vest and had a facemask on. For some reason he was wearing a headband that covered a portion of his face leavin just his right eye to be seen. His posture lead to the casual viewer to figure he was bored. He was also half reading a small book, snapping it shut once the little fight had ended

Thankfully, Ranma and Ed were anything but casual.

"Are you two done?" the gray-haired one asked casually.

"Oh, totally." Ranma said absently, shrugging as he bent down to wrap up his bed. "Just some morning exercise and all." It really didn't feel like morning to him though. Great.

"Seriously. You get the day wrong and the time? It's closer to evening now." Ed said with a small snort, dropping his arms to his side, ready to clap them together for a sudden use of alchemy if he needed though. These guys screamed danger to him.

"It was Saturday night when I went to bed, making it Sunday morning to me when I wake up." Ranma retorted as he finished wrapping up his bed, picking it up, it looked like a decent sized sleeping bag when he was done and he seemed to make it disappear behind his back as if it wasn't there.

This caused a look of surprise from everyone around to be sure, he could hear someone wondering about how he did a jutsu without any visible seals. Whatever the hell that meant.

"And it was Tuesday evening when I was fighting failed experiments in some backass maze of Central. You point? Also, how'd you do that?" Ed responded in kind, wondering how the hell you made matter like that just simply disappear.

"Hidden Weapons Technique. Useful for holding camping supplies, extra clothing and whatnot." Ranma said with a shrug, directing his gaze to one of the masked people.

"Right, right." The wild gray haired man said after a moment. "Too bad you're both wrong and it's Thursday afternoon."

"Seriously?" The two responded in unison.

"Do I look like a person that would be distrustful?" the taller man responded with what looked like an eyegrin.

"Yes." Ranma said promptly. Ed keeping his mouth shut.

"He's got you there Kakashi." the non-masked person said, still guardedly but with a smile on her face.

"Cheeky brats." Kakashi muttered, "Well, Shizune, it's your call."

"Why's it my call, you're the ranking Jonin." She pointed it, turning to him.

"You're the Hokage's persona aide." He rejoined cheerfully.

"Jonin?" Ranma asked suddenly, his eyes going flat. "Aw, shit, I'm in a land of ninja, aren't I?" he grumbled a little and took his own guarded pose. Someone was going to pay for this when he got home.

"Relax, kid. We're just here to make sure you don't attack the village. Thankfully you kept your little fight outside of the gates." Kakashi said with a shrug. "Speaking of which, you want those wounds taken a look at while we ask you both some questions?" he directed the second part to Edward who just rolled his shoulders in a shrug.

"Great. Shizune, will you show them the way? I want to get out of here before Guy shows up." Kakashi deadpanned back to his fellow ninja before disappearing in a puff of smoke.

"Honestly." Shizune said with a grumble, letting out a sigh and relaxing before nodding at the ANBU beside her. "Go report to Lady Tsunade." Shizune turned back and looked at the two. "Follow me to the hospital, and for the Kami's sake, don't do anything suspicious."

Ranma twitched slightly at that last word. "Just so you know, because of that I'm going to get splashed with water and suddenly be suspicious." He grumbled a little bit as he started following, Ed following, keeping silent and looking around.

"How's that?" Shizune asked, it'd be easier if they volunteered information than giving them over to Anko while Ibiki was off on a forced vacation.

"I've got a magical curse." He said simply. "Cold water transforms me, hot water changes me back."

"Magic doesn't exist." Ed piped up instantly, breaking his own silence, directed his golden eyed gaze back to Ranma.

"If it doesn't exist, how come I transform and a bunch of other people change too, huh?" Ranma snorted. "Pops turns into a Panda, Ryoga into a little black pig, Mousse turns into a duck..."

"A hair care product turns into a duck?" Shizune butted in with a few confused blinks, looking back at them.

"Er, no. It's the guy's name. It's apparently a Chinese Amazon naming thing. They sound eerily familiar to hair care products but they're really not." Ranma shrugged absently. "I know a lot of people with weird names. On of them was named Pantyhose Taro, he turnss into something too."

Ed snorted at the last name. "Poor bastard. How'd he get a name like that? Actually, no wait. I don't want to know. And I still don't believe in magic, I'm a scientist, if I can't explain it, it doesn't exist." Ed nodded resolutely. Omitting the fact that his brother's soul was housed in an vintage armor from just a little bit of blood.

"Sounds rather snobbish. How old are you anyway?" Ranma asked suddenly as they took a turn down one of the roads and saw the hospital in sight.

"Er, almost sixteen." Ed shrugged slightly. "You?"

"Almost Eighteen...I think." Ranma blinked a few times. "Has it really been two years at the Dojo? 'Eh, I never really celebrated my birthday for as long as I remember. I think Pops gave me something once a year at random when we were out on that long trip o' ours. I dunno when my birthday is really. No biggie I guess." he shrugged slightly, not catching the somewhat horrified looks on the others faces. Even Ed liked to celebrate his birthday with Al, it was a little thing to look forward too.

"That doesn't sound healthy." Shizune spoke softly. "It's an important day celebrating whom you are."

"I guess." Ranma said sheepishly, scratching the base of his neck just under his pig-tail. "I guess, outside of these last couple of years I've just been on the road for so long trainin'. Guess Pops didn't think it was needed." the martial artist shrugged slightly. "Really, it's around the same time every year, I think it's in the next couple of days or something."

They stopped talking as they got to the enterance of the hospital, a rather large building and Shizune led them inside, stopping at the counter for a moment before beckoning the two teens to follow her. Ranma thought the fullbody suits were kind of silly looking while Ed looked around blankly. The entire building felt weird to him, as if there was some kind of odd Alchemy going around somewhere. "This entire building has places that feel weird to me." Ed shuddered after a moment.

Shizune frowned as they paused outside of one of the hallways. "How many places feel weird right now?"

"Three." Ed responded.

"I can feel a build up of Ki that's being steadily released...and absorbed in three different places too actually." Ranma added in. "Actually, no. I feel a subtely but massive power beyond this door. Like it's concentrated or something."

Shizune frowned a bit further, taking that information in. They could feel the medical jutsu, from a distance no less? There were three minor treatments for an accident that were going on. It had been what she was overseeing before she was called to see the disturbance. Maybe it had to deal with the way they were displaced to just outside of the village. But Ranma noticing Tsunade? Though, he called it Ki, not Chakra. "The person behind the door is the leader of the Village, she has her own personal questions to ask you." Shizune slid the door open for the two of them to walk in, closing the door behind her.

As soon as the door closed behind them, Ranma's entire body tensed. His situational awareness training kicked in and he didn't like the feeling, he was also suddenly grateful for the old panda for the hellish training it had involved when he was seven. If he counted himself and Edward, there really seemed like there were only four people in the room. Yet he could feel the Ki signatures of three other people and Ed nor Shizune seemed to have noticed. Nor did the person sitting in a chair looking out the window. The worst part was that two of the Ki signatures felt like those watching him from ealier, the third however felt twisted and wrong. Regardless of as such, these people were definitely Ninja, and they were stronger than 'Natsu. If push came to shove he might need to stop using his toned down 'civilian area' powers and start busting loose.

Snapped out of her thoughts, he looked at the woman as turned around at Shizune's voice. "Hokage-sama, these are the boys mentioned ealier." Shizune's voice was soft and Ranma noticed out of the corner of his eye that she was looking around, settling on where two of the ninja were transformed. She did know after all, at least about the them, what about the third?

"Thank you, Shizune." The woman spoke, her voice gentle, but there was an edge to it, it felt older than it sounded. She turned fully and looked at Ranma and Edward, both of their gazes were directed to her fully and they stood at attention. Ranma could finally tell where that massive build up was, that mark on her forehead. Edward however seemed oblivious to the majority of the situation, but this woman, to him, was assuredly in charge. Maybe it would be best if he was actually on good behaviour instead of the tone he usually took with superiors like Colonel Womanizer.

The woman paused, nodding a moment in thought and finally asked, "Why are you two in my village?"

"We were invited by that Kakashi guy as I recall it." Ranma said flippantly, though a grin was on his face. "Seriously though? I have no clue. I dunno why I ended up out there. Last night I went to bed at the place I was stayin' at, this mornin' I wake up to s...er...him falling on me." he jerks a thumb at Ed, remembering to not insult the obviously shorter person, especially considering his loud outburst from ealier. "You know, I'm surprised I haven't gotten splashed yet..." he mused softly, more to himself as Ed started to speak up.

"I was in a fight with some...things..." Ed said with a frown that suddenly turned to a smirk, "Someone then started to teleport me, I was unwilling by the way, and I messed with their array somehow. I ended up crashing through the wrong gate and fell down on this guy."

To Shizune and Tsunade, it seemed insane, it was obvious by the looks on their faces but that just caused both of the boys to laugh, but Ranma took a look of indifference to his features. "Not to be rude, but I gotta ask somethin'."

"Go ahead." Tsunade nodded, looking intrigued.

"Since you're the leader of this place, village, whatever." He frowned, trying to make sure this didn't envolve him putting his foot into his mouth. "You've got bodyguards, right? I mean, other than her, she looks more like an attendant or somethin'." Rnama nodded, stroking his chin. "I'd figure you've got two or somethin' around you at all times. That's my guess."

Tsunande narrowed her eyes a fraction of a millimetre, but it didn't go unnoticed by Ranma who suddenly smirked a little. He was right after all. Ed just looked confused though. It seemed like Tsunande also held back the tiniest of nods.

"Like I said, not to be rude, but could you have them join us? I mean, we're in a foreign land and I'd feel a bit more at ease and have some peace of mind." Ranma spoke softly, putting on his little 'poor me' show, it worked great on guys when he was a girl, so maybe he'd be able to use it in reverse.

Tsunande just gave off a small shrug and then nodded again. "There doesn't seem to be any harm in it." She lifted her hand and waved a little and then it happened.

Two of the objects in the room disappeared into a puff of smoke and in their places were two of those masked and cloaked Ninja. Those were the two proper Ki signatures and Ranma let out a sudden breath of relief. He was right, completely right and that meant the third one could be a spy, or worse. He felt the Ki signature fluctuate ever so slightly, as if it was tensed to be used and yet nothing happened. Ed's sudden 'What the hell?' was promptly ignored so Ranma could cover the next moment smoothly.

"Ninja, obviously. Alright then, might as well start off the introductions since I seem to be in a talkative mood." Ranma grinned a little.

"You just like the sound of your own voice." Ed quipped.

"I'm told it is rather manly." Ranma said rather demurely, it sounding totally the opposite of manly, then he smirked. "Well, as I was saying..." he trailed off and turned his back to the door, looking straight at Tsunande and Shizune. "Sorry about sounding rude, I just don't like people hiding and listening in on my conversations. It usually leads to misunderstandings and ends up with me being beaten by girls I know." he shuddered a moment before going on. "The name is Ranma Saotome, Heir to the Saotome-Style of Anything Goes Martial Arts."

With that said, he blurred backwards, his elbow pushing backwards violently as he slammed it into a potted plant. Like he suspected, the plant by the door disappeared into a puff of smoke, turning into a ninja as it doubled over in pain from the elbow he gave him. The looks of susprise coming from Shizune and Tunande were enough to convince him to add the second part of his attack "Sorry about this." he said absently and gripped his fists together with a turn as he slammed them both down onto the ninja's spine, knocking him to the floor.

"Sound Ninja." one of the ANBU hissed, "Keep him pinned." he hissed as he stepped forward, pulling a blade from somewhere in his cloak as he stepped forward.

"Don't worry, I've got this." Ed said suddenly, also stepping forward. "The name is Edward Elric." he spoke as he took a few confident steps forward, calpping his hands together loudly. "State Alchemist, codenamed, FullMetal." he said with a shrug and pushed his hands onto the ground.

The white and blue lightshow from his alchemy was enough to surprise even Ranma which caused the golden haired boy to grin as his Alchemy did it's work. The floor shifted from where his hands were to rise up and around the supposed Sound Ninja, wrapping above the Ninja on the ground, pushing him up until he was surrounded by the same material that made out the floor, leaving a small indent from the required materials he had used. It was as if the man was now a cement doll with only enough space left to allow the man to breathe, arms forced away from their side and legs parted as well.

With that done, he stood and shrugged, "Call me Ed."

Ranma whistled when the work was done, rather quickly at that. Tsunande had lifted an eyebrow and Shizune was trying to keep a calm face, the second ANBU had to ask though. "What kind of Ninjutsu is that?"

"Ninjutsu? What's that?" Ed asked, blinking a few times. "That was just Alchemy. It's an advanced science, anyone can do it with enough knowledge." He continued on with a shrug. "Though, I'm supposedly called a genius since I was the youngest person to ever achieve my ranking." He had tried to not let that get to his head because the only reason he was a dog of the military was for research purposes.

"Well then." Tsunande said, softly, looking at the fallen Sound Ninja and then back to the ANBU, "Take him to Anko, tell her to have some fun. I do believe we can trust these two. Can't we?" she directed the last part to the two in question while the two said ANBU picked up the foreign Ninja, floor wrapping and all.

Edward simply nodded and then realized that might not just be enough. "I swear on my remaining two limbs that'll I'll bring no harm to you and yours while under full use of my own faculties." Tsunande tilted her head at that and Ed shrugged, pulling back his sleeve to show off his metal arm a bit more obviously.

"That must've hurt." Ranma said with a shake of his head.

"You have no idea..." Ed mumured softly. "Connecting the nerves is the worst part everytime I need to get repairs. Since I don't know when I'm going to see Winry again, I'm glad I've gotten these reinforced. By the way, your turn." He grinned a little at Ranma.

"Huh? Oh yeah. Right. Hm." Ranma paused and nodded. "I swear on my Honor as a Martial Artist and on all hopes of ever being cured of my curse. Speaking of which, er...is there somewhere I can get changed? I really shouldn't be wandering around in my pajamas."

Tsunande blinked and laughed, looking over the young man. If only he was older or if she was suddenly at least thirty years younger...mmm..."Oh. Oh! Yes, just pull the curtain back over there." She said as she pointed next to the bed with a sink next to it.

"Thanks." Ranma said softly as he moved over the bed, pulling out his pack from now where and setting it on the floor before pulling the curtain, as he did, he caught the look from Tsunade at the sudden appearance of his things. "Hidden Weapons Technique. Great for useful things." he said with a shrug stripping off his shirt, ignoring the soft gasp from Shizune which was probably from all the old scars from the Neko-ken, and went over to the sink. Turning on the hot water and changing out of his white shirt and pajama pants, getting his usual black silk pants on and checking the temperature of the water to make sure it was hot. Instead of was ice cold. "Gah!" a rather female cry was heard.

Naturally, Ranma had forgotten to actually explain his curse, and the sudden sound of a female voice where a male one should have been was enough to cause concern coming from all those nearest and Ed was the first to react, pulling the curtain back to reveal a red-head that was shorter than he was, then he noticed the second part and that she was completely topless. He blushed a deep red and took a step back, hand going to his eyes so as to not see the rather exotic looking female before him.

"What the hell? Who are you and what did you do to Ranma?" Ed asked, Shizune going on the defensive and pulling out a kunai to throw, Tsunande standing from her chair and looking oddly at the girl, noticing the multitude of aged scars on her body that were the exact same position as they were on the boy who just slipped behind the curtain.

"I am Ranma you idiot. I told you I was cursed, now do you believe me?" Girl-type Ranma swore sulpherously, wrapping her arm around her breasts once she realized she was topless and pulled the curtain back. "I knew I was going to get cold water, why the hell didn't I wait to have a shirt on? Stupid so stupid." she muttered and grabbed her favorite red-shirt. "You can put that damn weapon away Shizune, I'm not going to do anything." she mumbled and pushed herself back out from behind the curtain, making her pack disappear where it came from. She eyed Shizune who still looked warily at Ranma. "I told you I was going to get splashed. It seems your hot water doesn't work right now."

Shizune frowned and did recall the conversation. Ed blinked and frowned as well, remembering it as well. "I didn't think you were serious." They both said.

"I'm used to people calling me a pervert or a freak once they find out, actually." Ranma rolled her eyes and looked at Tsunande while she started to recite the usual reply. "Pops and I were on a training trip, we ended up in the Bayankala Mountain Range in the Qinghai Province of China. We came across a dangerous training ground called Jusenkyo, the Pools of Sorrow." Her voice had gone monotone as she recited the event as if it was a common as day explination. "Within Jusenkyo, there are many springs, each having their own Death Curse, when you fall in one you become that aspect of the spring, very tragic stories." She halfheartedly snorted at that. "Pops fell into Spring of Drowned Panda, he surprised me when he jumped out as a Panda and knocked me into Spring of Drowned Girl." She shrugged at that. "If someone lands in an unclaimed pool, they will drown." she narrowed her eyes. "There's also no known cure, though I haven't given up on that."

"Why didn't you just go find the Spring of Drowned Male?" Ed asked softly, wondering what it'd be like and shuddered at the thought of having to be a girl half the time.

"We tried at first, never could find it. Honestly, I'm glad now that I haven't." Ranma shivered at the though, having made the connection after Pantyhose Taro showed up once again a couple weeks after the last wedding attempt.

"What do you mean?" Shizune asked, looking a bit perplexed, this was beyond her medical expertise, for sure.

"The curses mix and merge. If I jumped into that spring I'd turn into half a man, half a girl." Ranma shivered at that though. At least this way he was a full sex, not half a one.

"How.." Tsunande was about to ask and Ranma answered before she got any more words out with: "It's a complete change. I'm fully female. I know more about a woman's body than any man should ever know." She grimaced slightly at that. "I'm actually due for...you know...in the next few days."

"For what?" Ed asked, suddenly. Sure he knew the human body inside out, but he still didn't pay attention to girls all that often, well, not much outisde of that automail geek of a neighbour he had.

"For something that's not polite to talk about in company of men." Tsunade added simply, looking at the boy turned girl with sympathy.

"I'm a guy, dammit." Ranma growled out.

"Well, as entertaining as this is." Tsunande chuckled lowly. "My name is Tsunade, I'm the Hokage of this village. Shizune here is my apprentice, of sorts, though she's graduated beyond that point. I welcome you to Konoha." she paused for a moment, thinking it over. "Since you have no place to stay you can use the brat's place until you find a way out of your situation and home, or until he gets back."

"Tsunade-Sama, do you really think that's a good idea? I mean, this is Naruto's place we're talking about." Shizune said as she made her way to the door.

"Well, there's no where else, and I don't think any of the clans want to take on any charity cases." The older woman said with a shrug and looked at the two. "This is a village of Ninja, so if you want some money to buy things, you're going to have to work for it." she eyed them speculatively. "Maybe we can place you two with one of the teams after you go through an evaluation of some sorts. Protect the village and we protect you kind of thing. Sound good?"

Ed and Ranma looked at each other. They both honestly prefered to work alone, but sometimes a group was better for their survival and they figured they'd need to help each other to get out of this alive. Who knew how or when they'd be able to get to their respective homes. They both nodded at each other and looked back to Tsunade.

"Sounds good to me." They both said, smirking a little.

"Great." Tsunade grinned. "Now lemme look at those wounds of yours Ed and I'll send you on your way. Shizune, go summon Shikamaru, he needs something to do so he won't get bored."

It didn't take much longer, Tsunade went over and healed the minor wounds with medical jutsu, Ranma watching carefully at the technique she used, wondering if she could do the same thing and tried to not stare at the bare mechanical arm and leg Edward was showing. When Tsunade asked about it, Ed just replied with a soft 'It was a mistake.' and nothing more was said. Even now, after all these years, it was still painful to think about the failed transmutation. Hopefully while he was stuck here, Al would be okay.

Tsunade also asked to look at Ranma's old scars and she shrugged it off, they were old and weren't going away anytime soon, she'd had them since he was around six years old after all. They also made a small talk about Ranma's oncoming 'problem' and Ranma was sure she had the proper supplies, even some soap to make sure she stayed 'locked' as she put it. Sure, she'd spend at least a week like this, but she had gotten used to it, accepted the entire thing as just whom she was now. While Ed was making sure not to pay attention, he used part of his red jacket to make himself another pair of gloves, giving the others a show of his Alchemy once more.

Five minutes later, Shikamaru Nara showed up, looking bored and tired as usual, standing attention once he caught sight of his Hokage. Introductions were regiven, causing Ranma to snicker slightly, but cut it off once she realized she should be good. Tsunade and Ed made sure to point out that Ranma was really in fact a guy. All in all, it was a strange introduction to the recent Chuunin. A moment later, they were off with Shikamaru leading the two, having also given Tsunade a message from Sakura that she had finished the next stage of her training.

Soon enough they were walking the streets and on the way to Naruto's home, Ranma's stomach started to growl. "Sorry." she said sheepishly.

"It's fine." Shikamaru mumbled, looking down the street, "I was actually going to get Yakiniku with my team. You might as well come with me, I can pay, this time." he said looking sideways at the pair. "Ignore everything Ino says and don't call Choji fat." He smirked a little.

"Ahh, he has a problem with that, hu-uh?" Ranma asked.

"Like you wouldn't believe." Shikamaru nodded. "Though, you can get away with it once, the second time he just loses it. The Akimichi men are all 'big-bodied'." he continued dryly. "He's also my best friend." he added with a shrug. "Asuma-sensei is trying to quit smoking again, so he might be irritable."

They turned down another road, taking their time as Shikamaru was wont to do and arrived at their destination without much in the way of delay, meandering into the resturant, they found Shikamaru's team already waiting for him.

"Hey, Shikamaru, you get a girlfriend?" the blonde girl asked, almost impishly, Ed and Ranma pegged her as Ino, but Ranma's eyebrow twitched at that.

"How troublesome..." Shikamaru muttered and slid into his usual spot. "Push over everyone and let them sit. I'm getting them some food. Choji, don't take any of it." He grinned a little at his large friend.

"I always have the last piece." the larger teen declared haughtily.

"Psh. Not while I'm around." Ranma grinned a little. "I've gotta fight my old man for breakfast every morning, I ain't about to lose to anybody." she paused and looked at Shikamaru, "I probably eat more than Choji does actually." she said with a stretch and sat down beside whom she figured was Asuma.

"Eat more than him? And keep that figure?" Ino asked, bewildered. "How the hell is something like that possible and how do I do it?" she almost pleaded that part out.

"I train a lot. Use a lot of energy, eat a lot to get it back." Ranma replied with a faint shrug while pulling her pigtail over her shoulder and unbraiding it. She'd been doing it more often while she was a girl because Kasumi and Akane once agreed it looked cute.

"I also eat a bit more than the average person does, though, that's because of an accident." Ed shrugged, putting a slight emphasis on the last word, it was something he didn't like talking about after all. "The name is Edward Elric, just call me Ed."

"Oh yeah, Ranma Saotome." Ranma chirped.

Introductions were swift and over with as the first bit of meat finished while Shikamaru ordered an extra couple of rounds, everyone getting along readily and soon there was small talk. "So you two were the cause of that disturbance this morning, huh?" Asuma asked after the third round had finished and a few more had been ordered. "I thought it was two teenaged boys that were out there." He looked down at Ranma and arched an eyebrow at her.

"Oh, that was us." Ed said, skewering a piece of meat, smirking over at Ranma who just looked at him blandly for a moment. "She's got a curse, she's really a guy."

"With a chest that huge, I'd have to call that a lie." Ino mumbled causing Ranma to splutter a little.

"Don't bring my chest into this." Girl-Type Ranma glared. He went to the explination again, this was going to be a long day if she'd have to keep this up. Adding in at the end, "Yes, it's a full change, including things only females deal with...and I really should just print up a bloody pamphlet and be done with it so I can just hand them out." she grumped, focusing her eyes on Ino as she was about to ask for a glass of hot water. "Don't even think about it, I don't want to get the seat wet and I'd rather get this week over with as fast as possible." She didn't add in that part of the hormones stayed with her when she was back as a guy, which is why she had the soap actually on her, it was nice to be prepared.

"We were both holding back quite a lot this morning too." Ed added after a moment of thought, draining his own water dry. Though he hated to admit it, he'd never be able to beat Ranma in a hand-to-hand fight, but the training he'd get out of it? He might even be able to beat Al a second time, and this time without cheating.

"Hey, yeah, you never did any of that Alchemy stuff. Why is that?" Ranma asked with a couple of blinks.

"Well, against someone of your speed, it'd leave me wide open, the only other option, I'd prefer not to ever use again if I can help it." Ed shuddered as the memory of what Scar did to him and Al in that alleyway, repressing it as fast as he could.

"You'll have to explain that one to me." Ranma said, suddenly interested.

"Alright, fine." Ed muttered, "There's the Law of Conservation of Mass and the Law of Providence are the main rules of Alchemy, along with three seperate stages."

"Oh, I know that first one." Ranma said suddenly. "Energy cannot be made and destroyed, only altered, or something, right?"

"Heh, along those lines, yes." Ed pulled out a small slip of paper with a small array drawn into it. "This is a very simple Alchemy symbol, used just for an example. I can use this to transmute something small into something else." he put the circle back into his pocket and skewered another piece of meat. "Since my accident, I don't actually need to use the cirlce, my body acts as one. Watch." With that Ed cleaned off his small plate and then clapped his hands together, a spark of blue and white energy coming forth as the small ceramic plate was transmuted into a small ceramic folded crane. "The same size, density, weight as the plate. Equivilent trade is the rule." He handed it over so that others could stare at it before he took it back and broke it with his right hand, much to the surprise of everyone. "Anything that is broken can be fixed too." He repeated the same motion and all the shards of the broken crane was transmuted back to the simple ceramic plate.

"Anyway, the three stages of Alchemy are Comprehension, then Decomposition and finally Reconstruction." Ed started to explain, giving small other examples as they eat. It was about an hour later that they concluded their conversation. Ino had been worried about if all Al had said was supposed to be a secret or not, but he shrugged it off as a science available to all. Advanced Science to be sure, but still science.

It didn't take long after that for Shikamaru to show them the way to Naruto's place and he unlocked it with a key given to him from Tsunade-Sama. Honestly, the place was less of a mess than the sometimes girl thought it would be, about the amount that the recent Chuunin thought it would be, and beyond a mess to the short Alchemist. They gave it a look around and decided to unlock and open the other door that lead to the balcony to let the stale smell out.

As soon as a little part of the room was cleaned out, Shikamaru nodded to himself and started to speak. "After you get yourselves situated, someone will be by to take you two the testing areas for your evaluation. Just some practice dummies no doubt." he shrugged and let out a yawn. "If you'll excuse me, I need to get ready for the next Chuunin Exam. How troublesome." he mumbled the last couple of words as he went out the door to the Balcony and jumped off to the next roof with practiced ease.

Ed whistled a little bit as he saw the distance Shikamaru had jumped and Ranma just shrugged it off as if it was nothing which Ed also saw. "I think you're more at home here than I could ever be," he snorted as he looked around all the room again.

"Nah, I'm just used to shit being shoved my way." Ranma said as she rolled her shoulders in another shrug. "To many stupid things've happened to me the last few years, isn't even funny." she was starting to get relaxed around Ed, which was somewhat enjoyable. Here was a guy that wasn't actually out to kill him.

"I can understand that." Ed nodded and continued to help Ranma clean up, getting the pile of dishes cleaned with a clap of his hand, making all the old stains on the dishes disappear into a rather small and ornamental suit of armor. "I love being able to do dishes like that."

"Sure looks useful. I bet Kasumi would love something like that." Ranma giggled at the though. It'd cut down on the time spent cleaning that's for sure. "Wait, that was all like bits of food right? What's that make the statue?"

"Mainly Carbon." Ed nodded, "Little bits of other things here and there, but it's pretty durable."

"Wasted food into a sellable statue. Cool." Ranma snorted and shook her head as she decided to put away the dishes that Ed had just cleaned, it didn't take long for her as she started to move around the house as a blur, Ed standing back to not get in the way, he lifted an eyebrow in question as she finished.

"Everything is training. Pops drilled it into my head, it's one of the smarter things he came up with." Ranma said as she closed the last cupboard.

"My Sensei might get along with him then." Ed said with a shudder.

"Who knows. Pops is pretty stupid sometimes though. He's made up for most everything, but he knows he can't take some mistakes back." Ranma's voice had gone cool at that and Ed nodded in understanding about the mistakes part. "Well, we've got an hour or so to kill." Ranma said with a shrug, making sure to pour some hot water on herself to turn back into a guy.

Ed watched in fascination as the change took over Ranma, it was almost intantaneous and he could barely keep track with his eyes. One second there was a short, stacked, red-head and the next there was a tall muscular man with black hair in her place. The only thing that didn't really change was the blue of Ranma's eyes. All in all, a creepy thing to the Alchemist. "What do you think we should do?" He asked, trying to sound nonchalant after watching something that was a blatant disregard to his beliefs.

"I think we should get to know each other a bit better. Who knows how long we'll be stuck here. Or how long we'll be stuck with each other if we manage to find another portal." Ranma said, cocking his head to his side as he re-did his pig-tail. "I'm sure as hell not jumping in one alone without any knowledge and you're a hell of a lot smarter than I am."

Ed smirked at the cimpliment and for the next hour and some they started to trade stories and their experiences. Ranma left out details like the Neko-Ken, he'd be telling that one at the training ground while Ed left out how he got his Auto-Mail. Both were very touchy subjects to the teens, but as they opened up to each other, they figured they would tell their respective stories in full detail soon enough.

Notes From the Author: Yeah, I know, I started with Naruto. I should hang my head in shame. :P

Well, there we have it. The reason I haven't updated TKR lately. I'll be working on that tomorrow though and an update should be coming shortly. Not sure how shortly, but shortly nontheless.

This story will have longer updates than the other as the other is being planned while I'm pulling this one completely out of leftfield with a coathanger on a tenfoot pole. I'll try to update faster, but I get distracted very easily by reading other fics on here, so much so that I neglect my own. I'm a horrible, horrible person and I'll try to do better for the bunch of people that like my stuff.

Also, as read, this is taking place during the time-skip. I'll be dealing with the other Chuunin exams and we'll see what happens from there. As everyone knows, the Rookie 9 all become Chuunin with Neji becoming Jounin, that may take place, it may not. I'm not even sure if I'll even get that far before Ed and Ranma get the hell out.

And, yes, I tend to be dialogue heavy. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not. I'll let the people decide however if I should cut back on that or not. I personally like character driven stories, but hey, I also like my violence here and there.

Finally, no, this is NOT going to be a pairing fic between Ed and Ranma. That's just...ick. Ed might start to like a new girl, he might remain fixated slightly on Winry, who knows? Ranma's going to get a nice shock when I get to the second or third 'verse. I'll forewarn now and it'll be a trip to Mahou Sensei Negima, it should be obvious what kind of shock it might lead to with one of the characters, but I'm hoping for totally random speculation. I makes my day when I read crazy theories.

Hope March starts out good for everyone. As with every update I post, I hope you enjoy this, even if it's not a popular kind of fic, what with there only being three others in this area.