Fic Teaser: East Wind
Jun. 10th, 2005 08:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
soc_puppet...I'm having a bit of difficulty with the meme fics, I admit ;_; I'm not so good with lines and pairing requests, it appears. (I shall have to remember this in the future.) So, as this fic is very distracting to me, I thought I could use it to distract you as well ^_^ (FYI, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
nekokenchan, you've read all of this already, but feel free to read again, and if nothing else, skip down to the author's notes ^_^)
I warn you ahead of time that this is a bad, bad idea. And that it is unfinished and this post is only a teaser, et cetera.
Fandom: FMA (manga version)/Naruto x-over
Summary: A study of the contrast between classical Western Alchemical technique and the hidden Eastern technique, Ninjutsu. Gen.
Warnings: Liberties taken with things like heights and geography; things like timelines and language barriers completely ignored; homunculus eye characteristics taken as ‘anything in the purple-to-red range and/or with strange irises’ for the entirety of the fic. FMA manga spoilers through chapter forty-seven.
Title: East Wind
Shortly after the incident with Scar and the Sins, Ling and his bodyguards had begun preperations to return to his homeland. With Ran Fan injured, Ling needed reinforcements, especially to deal with the homunculi. He would return with help as soon as possible. Ling hadn’t been particularly quiet about the fact that, despite foreign powers being involved, this was sure to win him favor back home.
Winry had gone back to Rush Valley, somewhat more troubled than when she’d come. When he found time between being irritable over his recent lack of results and worrying that he and Al would never be restored, Ed spared a moment to be concerned for her. The incident with Scar had shaken her badly, especially after learning of Hughes’ death.
Al was occupied with a new lead. He’d found a book in a collector’s house that had some vital clues to their mission. Unfortunately, the collector didn’t approve of State Alchemists; neither was he willing to part with the book they needed. It was left to Al to go in and take notes on it, and there wasn’t much Ed felt he could add to the effort.
It seemed all there was left for Edward to do was waiting. He tried going through the books in the library, but he remembered most of them too well, and the ones he didn’t he managed to tear through fairly quickly. He didn’t have any real hobbies, and he had too much nervous energy to work on them if he did.
After a few weeks of having Ed underfoot at the office, Roy gave up. “If you’re so bothered by having nothing to do,” he told Ed, “then go east. Study the alchemy methods there, learn their theories, since you seem to know ours so well. You might find something.”
Ed knew the man was mostly annoyed with him hanging anxiously around the office, but he was also right (much though it pained Ed to admit it, even to himself). He was no use to anyone at all if the only thing he did was wait. Ed was packed by the time Al got home that night.
Ed was a little wary of leaving Al alone, and Al was worried about letting Ed go off on his own, but the two of them managed to work things out with relatively few bruises on Edward’s part. Al gave Ed a long talk on manners and self defense and made him promise to write, and Ed arranged for Gracia and Alicia to stop by from time to time to make sure Al was doing okay. With one final good-bye, Ed began his journey eastward.
And promptly got lost. He’d purchased a map before he’d left, but none of the landmarks looked the same, and Ed didn’t have a very specific designation in mind anyway. Edward ended up transmuting it into firewood one night, finally deciding it wasn’ good for much else, and generally regretting not traveling with Ling when he’d had the chance.
Traveling was much different after that. Ed mostly walked in the direction he thought was east—though it was hard to tell without a compas. For a while, everything went well.
Things started going downhill as soon as he spotted trees. Ed was fairly certain theat there weren’t suppposed to be forest growing in this part of the world; wasn’t it all desert until it reached the mountains? He was beginning to regret having burned the map after all. Perhaps worse was the uncertain feeling that he was being watched. Years of getting into sticky situations had given Ed a sense of when things were waiting to go downhill, and Ed was knee-deep in it after on,y two days of wandering through trees. He thought about turning bck for a while, but ultimately rejected the idea, since he had no real idea where he’d been. It would be safer, he decided, just to keep going. Still, in the interest of not making himself any more noticable, he decided to limit the alchemy he used.
This proved more easily decided then acted on. Food was rather hard to find and Ed needed a lot of it, especially if he wanted to make sure Al stayed healthy as well. It brought back memories of the month he and Al had spent on an island, rying to win Izumi’s favor so she would teach them alchemy. Ed often ended up smiling as making dinner or wandering through the undergrowth triggered memories of a happier time.
The feeling that something might go wrong got worse as Ed worked his way through the forest. It got to the pint where Ed stopped to construct a spear for himself before he was ready to move on again. Carrying a weapon openly didn’t do much to suggest that he wasn’t hostile and made the feeling that something was about to go wrong ge even stronger, but Ed gained too much comfort from the spear to set it aside. Over all, if he had a chance of putting his foot in it, he’d rather get it over with and be ready to defend himself when it happened than put it off and risk being unprepared.
He felt better for carrying it when he was finally attacked the next day. Ed had been walking and entertaining thoughts of lunch (breakfast having been long gone by then) whe he caught sight of what might have been a wall through the trees. Brightening at the prospect of a town (food! Directions! A decent bed!), Ed quickened his step.
He had barely gone twenty paces when something whizzed past his ear. Taking this as a warning sign, Ed positioned his spear between his hands and dropped into a defensive stance. He didn’t want to think about what might happen if he turned to look at the thing that had been thrown at him.
The air around Ed blurred for a moment, and he found himself surrounded. Forward and to his right was a taller man with grey hair sticking up in spikes. A dark mask covered the lower half of his face, and a decorative piece of metal shielded his left eye. Looking at him, Ed was uncomfortably reminded of the Fuhrer for a moment.
In front of him and to his left was a blond boy dressed in glaring orange. Ed wondered how he could have missed the boy with the way he was dressed, but quickly dismissed the thought. The boy’s stance was eager, and almost over-confident; alchemy-blue eyes glittered over parallell sets of whisker-like marks on his cheeks.
Periferally and to his right was a girl—the only on in the group. She had a full head of pink hair, a color he hadn’t seen since he met Rose in Lior. She wore a red dress slitted up the sides to allow for more movement—more practical, in Ed’s opinion, than much of the clothing he’d seen women wear—and a pair of long black shorts beneath it.
The final member of the attacking force stood behind Ed and to his left. Pale with dark hair and eyes alike, the boy’s stance seemed easy and familiar, as if he were used to training, but not comfortable. His eyes were narrowed in calculation.
Ed forced his attention forward again, the spear a comforting weight in his hands. He doubted he’d be able to win against four opponents at once, especially without Al to back him up, but damned if he was going to give up without a fight. They waited, all of them, shifting slightly for better positions, the air tense around them. Then, in answer to some intangible signal, the fight began.
The man on the right blurred again and was gone in an eye blink, but Ed was more concerned with the movement he saw over his left shoulder. He spun and blocked a kick from that direction with his spear and allowed the momentum to spin the weapon around him to make the blonde jump back with a scowl. He wasn’t given time to savor this, however, and he swung it around again to deflect a knife thrown by the girl while blocking a punch from the dark-haired boy with his right arm. The knife nicked his cheek and Ed could feel warm blood trickle down his face; he didn’t notice the sting. Drops of red were scattered in the air as he jumped to avoid the blonde’s sweeping kick and Ed brought his spear above his head in order to keep his balance. He saw movement from the corner of his left eye and turned his head in time to see the gray-haired man knock the spear from his flesh hand.
Ed turned over in the air, caught himself as he landed and rolled out of the way and to his feet. The spear lay between him and his opponents, pointing away; Ed dismissed it as lost. His eyes narrowed; the stalemate wouldn’t last long. Hoping to get a jump on his opponents, Ed promptly threw his self imposed ‘no alchemy’ rule out the proverbial window and brought his hands up to clap. Edward smirked through the crackle of energy as his attackers tensed, and a cruel-looking blade erupted from his right forearm. Once the sparks had dissipated, Ed charged.
His opponents didn’t move, save for a flurry of hand signals, which Ed thought was foolish until he had to dodge a fireball. Ed nearly stumbled from shock at seeing their wholly unfamiliar method of alchemy, which required neither array nor transmutation circle, but caught himself before he fell. Ducking, he clapped again and placed his hands on the ground, raising a shield of earth against a shower of knives and flat metal stars. When he turned to renew his attack, he found himself surrounded by three identical figures—the blonde and copies of him, though how he pulled it off without disguising his companions was a mystery to Ed; more of their strange alchemy perhaps?
Edward deflected the first blow but was left open for the second, and froze when the blonde leveled a blade at his throat. The two other blond figures vanished with twin puffs of smoke, and the last thing Edward saw before passing out was the gray-haired man’s approaching hands. Then, deft fingers caught Edward’s scalp, and he slept.
~TBC~
You, the reader, can be of great help to me in this fic ^_^ First of all, I'm going to need as much information as I can get on how jutsu work. It can be as little as a general summary from memory or as much as an essay with charts and diagrams cited from the manga. It can be something in between. It can just be references to where I can find the information myself, or page numbers for where such information is in the manga. I don't need to know everything; theories and general ideas are fine. Also, the information doesn't have to be exact; it only needs to be close enough that I don't make an ass of myself. Any help would be much appreciated, and helpers celebrated in the author's notes ^_^
Also, I could use a couple of easy-to-describe Japanese meals, hopefully to contrast fairly well with ramen and sushi.
Finally, C&C would be very much appreciated @_@ as I am rather unsure of this fic. I mean, it's loads of fun to write, but is it any good? Do people enjoy it? Is it reasonably easy to suspend your disbelief when reading it, or would angry fangirls come after me wielding lead pipes for disfiguring canon?
I look forward to any responses I can get regarding these questions. Thanks for your time ^_^
nekokenchan, you've read all of this already, but feel free to read again, and if nothing else, skip down to the author's notes ^_^)I warn you ahead of time that this is a bad, bad idea. And that it is unfinished and this post is only a teaser, et cetera.
Fandom: FMA (manga version)/Naruto x-over
Summary: A study of the contrast between classical Western Alchemical technique and the hidden Eastern technique, Ninjutsu. Gen.
Warnings: Liberties taken with things like heights and geography; things like timelines and language barriers completely ignored; homunculus eye characteristics taken as ‘anything in the purple-to-red range and/or with strange irises’ for the entirety of the fic. FMA manga spoilers through chapter forty-seven.
Title: East Wind
Shortly after the incident with Scar and the Sins, Ling and his bodyguards had begun preperations to return to his homeland. With Ran Fan injured, Ling needed reinforcements, especially to deal with the homunculi. He would return with help as soon as possible. Ling hadn’t been particularly quiet about the fact that, despite foreign powers being involved, this was sure to win him favor back home.
Winry had gone back to Rush Valley, somewhat more troubled than when she’d come. When he found time between being irritable over his recent lack of results and worrying that he and Al would never be restored, Ed spared a moment to be concerned for her. The incident with Scar had shaken her badly, especially after learning of Hughes’ death.
Al was occupied with a new lead. He’d found a book in a collector’s house that had some vital clues to their mission. Unfortunately, the collector didn’t approve of State Alchemists; neither was he willing to part with the book they needed. It was left to Al to go in and take notes on it, and there wasn’t much Ed felt he could add to the effort.
It seemed all there was left for Edward to do was waiting. He tried going through the books in the library, but he remembered most of them too well, and the ones he didn’t he managed to tear through fairly quickly. He didn’t have any real hobbies, and he had too much nervous energy to work on them if he did.
After a few weeks of having Ed underfoot at the office, Roy gave up. “If you’re so bothered by having nothing to do,” he told Ed, “then go east. Study the alchemy methods there, learn their theories, since you seem to know ours so well. You might find something.”
Ed knew the man was mostly annoyed with him hanging anxiously around the office, but he was also right (much though it pained Ed to admit it, even to himself). He was no use to anyone at all if the only thing he did was wait. Ed was packed by the time Al got home that night.
Ed was a little wary of leaving Al alone, and Al was worried about letting Ed go off on his own, but the two of them managed to work things out with relatively few bruises on Edward’s part. Al gave Ed a long talk on manners and self defense and made him promise to write, and Ed arranged for Gracia and Alicia to stop by from time to time to make sure Al was doing okay. With one final good-bye, Ed began his journey eastward.
And promptly got lost. He’d purchased a map before he’d left, but none of the landmarks looked the same, and Ed didn’t have a very specific designation in mind anyway. Edward ended up transmuting it into firewood one night, finally deciding it wasn’ good for much else, and generally regretting not traveling with Ling when he’d had the chance.
Traveling was much different after that. Ed mostly walked in the direction he thought was east—though it was hard to tell without a compas. For a while, everything went well.
Things started going downhill as soon as he spotted trees. Ed was fairly certain theat there weren’t suppposed to be forest growing in this part of the world; wasn’t it all desert until it reached the mountains? He was beginning to regret having burned the map after all. Perhaps worse was the uncertain feeling that he was being watched. Years of getting into sticky situations had given Ed a sense of when things were waiting to go downhill, and Ed was knee-deep in it after on,y two days of wandering through trees. He thought about turning bck for a while, but ultimately rejected the idea, since he had no real idea where he’d been. It would be safer, he decided, just to keep going. Still, in the interest of not making himself any more noticable, he decided to limit the alchemy he used.
This proved more easily decided then acted on. Food was rather hard to find and Ed needed a lot of it, especially if he wanted to make sure Al stayed healthy as well. It brought back memories of the month he and Al had spent on an island, rying to win Izumi’s favor so she would teach them alchemy. Ed often ended up smiling as making dinner or wandering through the undergrowth triggered memories of a happier time.
The feeling that something might go wrong got worse as Ed worked his way through the forest. It got to the pint where Ed stopped to construct a spear for himself before he was ready to move on again. Carrying a weapon openly didn’t do much to suggest that he wasn’t hostile and made the feeling that something was about to go wrong ge even stronger, but Ed gained too much comfort from the spear to set it aside. Over all, if he had a chance of putting his foot in it, he’d rather get it over with and be ready to defend himself when it happened than put it off and risk being unprepared.
He felt better for carrying it when he was finally attacked the next day. Ed had been walking and entertaining thoughts of lunch (breakfast having been long gone by then) whe he caught sight of what might have been a wall through the trees. Brightening at the prospect of a town (food! Directions! A decent bed!), Ed quickened his step.
He had barely gone twenty paces when something whizzed past his ear. Taking this as a warning sign, Ed positioned his spear between his hands and dropped into a defensive stance. He didn’t want to think about what might happen if he turned to look at the thing that had been thrown at him.
The air around Ed blurred for a moment, and he found himself surrounded. Forward and to his right was a taller man with grey hair sticking up in spikes. A dark mask covered the lower half of his face, and a decorative piece of metal shielded his left eye. Looking at him, Ed was uncomfortably reminded of the Fuhrer for a moment.
In front of him and to his left was a blond boy dressed in glaring orange. Ed wondered how he could have missed the boy with the way he was dressed, but quickly dismissed the thought. The boy’s stance was eager, and almost over-confident; alchemy-blue eyes glittered over parallell sets of whisker-like marks on his cheeks.
Periferally and to his right was a girl—the only on in the group. She had a full head of pink hair, a color he hadn’t seen since he met Rose in Lior. She wore a red dress slitted up the sides to allow for more movement—more practical, in Ed’s opinion, than much of the clothing he’d seen women wear—and a pair of long black shorts beneath it.
The final member of the attacking force stood behind Ed and to his left. Pale with dark hair and eyes alike, the boy’s stance seemed easy and familiar, as if he were used to training, but not comfortable. His eyes were narrowed in calculation.
Ed forced his attention forward again, the spear a comforting weight in his hands. He doubted he’d be able to win against four opponents at once, especially without Al to back him up, but damned if he was going to give up without a fight. They waited, all of them, shifting slightly for better positions, the air tense around them. Then, in answer to some intangible signal, the fight began.
The man on the right blurred again and was gone in an eye blink, but Ed was more concerned with the movement he saw over his left shoulder. He spun and blocked a kick from that direction with his spear and allowed the momentum to spin the weapon around him to make the blonde jump back with a scowl. He wasn’t given time to savor this, however, and he swung it around again to deflect a knife thrown by the girl while blocking a punch from the dark-haired boy with his right arm. The knife nicked his cheek and Ed could feel warm blood trickle down his face; he didn’t notice the sting. Drops of red were scattered in the air as he jumped to avoid the blonde’s sweeping kick and Ed brought his spear above his head in order to keep his balance. He saw movement from the corner of his left eye and turned his head in time to see the gray-haired man knock the spear from his flesh hand.
Ed turned over in the air, caught himself as he landed and rolled out of the way and to his feet. The spear lay between him and his opponents, pointing away; Ed dismissed it as lost. His eyes narrowed; the stalemate wouldn’t last long. Hoping to get a jump on his opponents, Ed promptly threw his self imposed ‘no alchemy’ rule out the proverbial window and brought his hands up to clap. Edward smirked through the crackle of energy as his attackers tensed, and a cruel-looking blade erupted from his right forearm. Once the sparks had dissipated, Ed charged.
His opponents didn’t move, save for a flurry of hand signals, which Ed thought was foolish until he had to dodge a fireball. Ed nearly stumbled from shock at seeing their wholly unfamiliar method of alchemy, which required neither array nor transmutation circle, but caught himself before he fell. Ducking, he clapped again and placed his hands on the ground, raising a shield of earth against a shower of knives and flat metal stars. When he turned to renew his attack, he found himself surrounded by three identical figures—the blonde and copies of him, though how he pulled it off without disguising his companions was a mystery to Ed; more of their strange alchemy perhaps?
Edward deflected the first blow but was left open for the second, and froze when the blonde leveled a blade at his throat. The two other blond figures vanished with twin puffs of smoke, and the last thing Edward saw before passing out was the gray-haired man’s approaching hands. Then, deft fingers caught Edward’s scalp, and he slept.
~TBC~
You, the reader, can be of great help to me in this fic ^_^ First of all, I'm going to need as much information as I can get on how jutsu work. It can be as little as a general summary from memory or as much as an essay with charts and diagrams cited from the manga. It can be something in between. It can just be references to where I can find the information myself, or page numbers for where such information is in the manga. I don't need to know everything; theories and general ideas are fine. Also, the information doesn't have to be exact; it only needs to be close enough that I don't make an ass of myself. Any help would be much appreciated, and helpers celebrated in the author's notes ^_^
Also, I could use a couple of easy-to-describe Japanese meals, hopefully to contrast fairly well with ramen and sushi.
Finally, C&C would be very much appreciated @_@ as I am rather unsure of this fic. I mean, it's loads of fun to write, but is it any good? Do people enjoy it? Is it reasonably easy to suspend your disbelief when reading it, or would angry fangirls come after me wielding lead pipes for disfiguring canon?
I look forward to any responses I can get regarding these questions. Thanks for your time ^_^
