Fw: Fma-naruto chapter 17 continued and revision..

Sent via a stray supercharged nano particle of unobtainium....

-----Original Message-----
From: llothcat@sbcglobal.net
Date: Sun, 31 Jul 2011 10:48:27
To: Blogger garden<llothcat1.garden@blogger.com>
Reply-To: llothcat@sbcglobal.net
Subject: Fma-naruto chapter 17 continued and revision..

A steady buzzing snore echoes throughout the hall of the Kazekage's tower when the sun nears it's peak. The gathering counselors look at one another, and most frown in severe displeasure. Gaara knows they all await news of the Five Great Countries' approval of the Allied Shinobi Forces to be announced, which is due to be delivered at noon through a rare broadcast, and the unexpected and embarrassing noise will surely be heard by the daimyo of Wind easily enough. It will also unfortunately broadcast along to the other daimyo as well, and such a sloven sound will definitely adversely affect Sand's future contracts, should the Alliance be successful in the impending World War.

He well knows the what it is like to be without sleep, and normally he would not wish to disturb anyone from their rest. He is the Kazekage, and since he has the village's future to consider.

Kankuro, like Temari, does not have to be present at official village proceedings. Gaara leans over to his brother, and whispers his instructions on the matter.

In moments, Kankuro shoves open the door to the guest room. The bang of the knob on the sandstone wall makes a few council members wince.

The sudden noise, sharp as a kunai, has little effect on the sleeping guest within.

Through his sand eye, Gaara sees that the thick dictionary lies were it fell a few hours ago, draped over the boy's face. He sees all of the boy's thin limbs sprawl limply over edges of the mattress in complete relaxation.

Kankuro shakes his head at the sight, and raises his hands. Gaara sees the chakra strings form at his brother's fingertips, then stretch out like spider webs across the room, most latching onto the thick mattress. His brother then barely twitches his forefinger, which skillfully causes the mattress to violently jerk.

The boy is a blur of motion, leaping away onto his hands and back onto his feet. His hands are up in a matching defensive taijustu-like stance even as his back crashes into a bookshelf, the force of impact shattering glass of the picture frames placed there.

Gaara watches Kankuro creep up to the boy and tilt his head. In moments he waves his hand over the boy's face, but the boy doesn't react as one would normally expect: no jerk away from the movement, nor a slapping swipe to push the intruding hand away. Instead, Gaara sees the boy's mouth begin to move.

Gaara weaves his fingers together, willing his sand eye closer. Yes, the mouth moves, but the golden eyes are curtained by those long bangs. Kankuro spots his floating sand eye, raises a brow in understanding, and shrugs as he turns away. His job is technically done: the snoring has stopped.

Gaara moves the eye closer still, and sees for himself the boy's unfocused golden gaze.

A feeble glimpse of black ink crawling over the pale skin at the boy's open collar, and Gaara's brows lower as he wills the sand eye back for a better view. Unfortunately, the boy dressed in the odd garments that he had watched him summon the day before, and by the many creases, he had lain all night long in the guest bed without changing out of them. The long white sleeves of the top conceal the skin of his arms, and by extension, the remaining seals' activity.

The screens dominating the wall in the council chamber flickered to life, and at the nearly same moment, the boy squeezes his golden eyes shut. The eerie movement playing on his skin slows to a stop as he opens his mouth into a large yawn and stretches his arms over his head.

Gaara blinks, and raises his gaze to the flickering image of the daimyo, reluctantly turning his attention away from the mystery in the guest room and back to the matter at hand.

ooooo

The sky isn't yet orange, but he knows it's late in the day.

Ed looks up as a platter of pastries enters through the open door, carried by a pair of legs. The impossible mental image makes the corner of his mouth raise.

"Food!! Here!" Ed says, hoping the words he chooses in the gibberish are correct.

"You understand us?" The platter halts, and lowers, revealing a face he hasn't yet seen. The mouth grins, but Ed doesn't miss the cloth tied at the stranger's forehead, nor its attached metal plate.

With about a quarter of the pages left to browse, and the painful complaints of his grumbling stomach, Ed's focus is not nearly as complete as he had it the night before. The movements of the fellow with the very welcome tray of food distract his eyes greatly, and he wrinkles his nose in annoyance at his watering mouth. His stomach is not at all happy with him, but he stubbornly forces himself on.
"Bit." Ed shrugs, not looking up from the thick book on his lap, tracing a finger along the side of the page as he scans the words presented there, logging each in his mind for nuance and flavor, then moving on to the next page to repeat the process.

"Why."

"Huh?" Ed looks up at the voice.

"If you understood us all this time.."

Temari says from the door. He sees her arms fold and notes her eyes flashing Hawkeye sharp. He swallows, firmly reminding himself that however much she looks it, she's no Riza. He tries to shove aside the icy feeling that he's about to get shot, and fails.

Ed holds up his hands and shakes his head as he interrupts her angry rant. "Not." Then looks to Temari. "You...no." Ed wrinkles his nose and frowns. "Too fast. No words."

She grunts, and turns her gaze to the fellow with the platter. As the pastry tray hovers tantalizingly close, Ed reaches out and greedily snatches several.

He misses most of what she says, due chomping and chewing, but picks out the last few words.

".. village he is from."

"Resembool." Ed says easily as breathing, speaking around his morsel as he licks his fingers. Temari's brows reach for her hairline.

"And what land is this Resembool in?" Temari says, mustering a hearty glare in his direction. Ed lowers a brow, vaguely wondering what the big deal is. It's not as though Ametris would ever declare war on Xing, now would it? The higher ups may be mad with the thirst for power, but he figures the big freaking desert in the way would likely stop something like that from ever happening.

"Amestris." He says and stuffs another pastry in his mouth. He chews with most of it hanging from his mouth as she mutters something that sounds suspiciously like:

"What kind of answer is..." As she turns in a huff and sweeps out. The platter guy darts his eyes her way nervously before he places his burden down and follows.

Ed leans for another pastry, waving reaching fingers just inches short of his quarry. He has one finger achingly close, and is mentally debating the relative merits of getting off his hump from the very comfortable bed for better grabbings when the door bangs open once more.

A crinkle of thick paper draws his eyes to the visitors standing behind Temari.

Two of them hug a large roll of paper between them, the other four stand and look rather like they ate something highly disagreeable.

"Show us this Resembool." Temari says, and at her gesture, the two unfurl the paper right over the bed. Ed folds his legs and sets aside the tome, choosing instead to regard the image printed before him. It's clearly a map, but to his dismay, none of the features look even vaguely familiar. Icy fear spears his stomach.

"Why." Ed says quickly, lacing his words thick with suspicion, and after a few heartbeats, he looks at each of the highly displeased faces gathered in the room. Those faces allow him to shove the frosty fear into the more familiar territory of bubbling frustration.

"Answer." Temari demands.

Ed folds his arms and glares at her, not liking the tone of this Not!Riza's voice at all. Besides, she has yet to shoot anything at him.

"No. I!"

"Answer." Temari demands, and adds. "Like last night."

Ed narrows his eyes as he hisses. "You pay for me? I slave?!"

Temari takes in a breath, and he watches her nostril flare. He smirks, knowing he hit something of a sore spot.

"Of course not. We..."

"We rescued you." Gaara says, and enters the room. Ed watches the sour faced people move aside rather quickly, making a wide berth for the redhead to stride where ever he should please. He slides his glare towards the pale blue eyes, and snorts in disbelief.

"Answer first. Where I?"

Gaara nods his head slightly, and says in a steady tone.

"Village Hidden in Sand."

Ed furrows his brows at the ridiculous sounding mouthful.

"Fun name. Where I."

Gaara's non existent brow lifts slightly.

"In the Land of Wind.."

"...Riiiight." Ed sweeps his left arm over the map. "Where."

Hours pass as more questions are asked about the location of his home village. He answers and sees frowns. The questions repeat. So do his answers. At the fifth round of the same questions, he snarls for another map, and in the span of a swig of water, it is placed before him. Ed looks down at it owlishly.

"Here is Land of Rock. Land of Fire. And so on." One of the "counselors", he forgets who, says as he gestures. Gaara was careful to introduce them, but with the new language taking nearly all of his concentration to use, the name just didn't stick in his head.
"Map is wrong." Ed insists as he gestures off to where the land bleeds off the edge. He glares at the counselor. "More map?"

"You mean bigger?"

Ed nods curtly, and swallows. As two roll the map up, he sees the people gathered in the room look to one another and mutter things too quick for him to follow. He runs a hand through his bangs, and darts his eyes around.

Through the window, the sky is dark. Outside. There is less bodies pressing in on him and fresh, fresh air. He slips off the not-so-comfortable-anymore mattress, and stands.

"Bathroom." He says to the many eyes drawn his way, and he all but marches to his stated destination. He closes the door firmly behind him, and startles at his own reflection in the mirror behind the sink.

Dark circles linger under his golden eyes, and he wonders at his sunken cheeks, which make his nose look sharper than ever. Golden bangs hang in a limp disheveled mess that match the tangled wreck of a braid at the base of his neck.

"Get a grip, Elric." He says in Amestrian as leans forward and paws his sharp chin. He takes in a breath and lets it out. "What good are you to Alphonse like this? Huh?"

Ed hangs his head over the sink, letting gravity release the tension in his shoulders. He then turns his head towards the small window nestled high in the wall.

"First things first." He says, and tosses a towel down fill to the crack beneath the door. "Fresh air."

ooooo

The counselors take turns pounding on the bathroom door, but Gaara shakes his head slightly when Temari turns her questioning gaze his way. He then turns about and strides out the guest room door just as the largest map yet arrives for Ed to look over.

Only Ed is no longer in the building to do so.

Temari darts out after him, and before she can breathe her unspoken question, he answers.

"Roof."

"That..little.." She growls angrily, and Gaara hold up a hand to silence her.

"We have wasted enough of the village's resources on this. We are at War, and there are far more important things to handle. Begin making with making a list of all the able-bodied nins of Suna."

Temari nods, and turns away.

It doesn't take Gaara long to reach where Ed is. His arms wrap about his knees, and the back of his head rests against the lip of the edge. The golden eyes lazily drift his way, and Gaara lowers his brows.

They are more glassy in person than his sand eye provides.

"You came out to see the stars."

A bitter snort is his reply, and the eyes return to their star gazing. Gaara nods and takes a step.

"You don't look at all happy with what you see above you."

"Different."

Gaara glances up.

"They look the same as always to me."

"Those that chained me. Box me in dark. No see them." Ed swallows. "Means. I. Am long. Long way from.."

"How far..?"

"Tired of questions." Ed looks off over the village. "I see bag. Bag. Bag. No happy faces. Many big knives." Ed looks back with skewed brows.

"You don't know the word?"

Ed slowly shakes his head, and smiles a wide watery grin. "Um..not done. Book. With..Umm."

Gaara frowns, and sits down near Ed on the lip. Between them, the silence lasts for several hours.
Sent via a stray supercharged nano particle of unobtainium....