Devin: Congratz guys, the age of the busy has finally arrived.

Austin: And you're happy about that?

Devin: No, moron, it's sarcasm, duh.

Izzy: It had better be!

Devin: Sigh… Whatever. Just expect less updates and less stories to be written because busy for me usually means tons of writers block and no updates. Sorry for the inconvenience, and please enjoy the rest of your flight.

Thud!Kakashi landed in a pile of dirt from a 10 foot drop.

"Ungh…" he moaned, but quickly realized he should complain later. He sat up quickly and tried to move away, but Itachi fell on top of him anyways, shoving his head into the ground for the second time in a row.

I'm lucky I wear this mask… I didn't swallow any dirt, he thought dully, and he gave up trying to stand, but gave a muffled grunt. Itachi rose slowly, and got off of Kakashi.

"Sorry," said Itachi, though he didn't sound sorry at all. Kakashi didn't waste any time on words, and instead scanned the area around them (A/N as soon as his head was out of the ground…). It was a barren desert; the only sign of anything besides sand was the mound that they fell in. Finally, they heard a noise.

"Brother, I'm stuck!" Someone cried out in the distance. Itachi and Kakashi exchanged a glance. Slowly, they walked towards the general direction of the voice, using the dunes of sand to conceal them from view. As they reached the speaker, Kakashi looked around the side of the mound, revealing hardly any of his face. Two figures, one massive and one incredibly short, stood together in the landscape. The big one was covered in a teal blue suit of armor, and had sunk into the sand until it reached his waste.

"Well don't just stand there, get up!" commanded the short one. He had blonde hair tied back into a ponytail, and when Itachi looked closer, he realized that the boy had deep, golden eyes. Strange… he thought to himself. Then he stopped musing as the boy clapped his hands together. Blue sparks fizzed and whizzed through the air around him and the metal man, and the two Konoha ninjas gawped in amazement. Suddenly, the ground rose underneath the metal man, and the sand sunk into a pit, and hardened into sandstone.

"Thanks, Ed," said the metal man.

"Anytime, Al," Ed responded, "now can we please get moving to the next town? I'm so thirsty right now I could drink up a lake…" Ed and Al started to argue and talk again, and Kakashi rose slowly, waving Itachi towards him.

"What do you think of them?" he muttered under his breath.

Itachi considered for a moment, and then responded, "Well, we have nowhere else to go, I say we follow them, at least for the time being. And besides, I want to find out what the weird trick with the sparks was. I've never seen anything like it!" Kakashi nodded.

"Sounds like a plan," he said decisively.

After three hours of trudging through the sand and tailing Edward and Al, they arrived at a small town. Kakashi and Itachi looked around, surprised.

"Well… it's no Konoha, but I suppose we could stay here for the night." said Itachi, frowning. But Kakashi just tapped his shoulder, and pointed towards an outdoor bar, filled with a bunch of big and burly guys, and Ed and Al. Itachi raised an eyebrow, but said nothing and went towards the stand casually. The radio on the counter was playing, and everyone went silent. The two ninjas couldn't make out anything, from their distance, but managed to hear the words "God" and "save". Itachi frowned again. His experiences with Hidan left him unsure about any form of god. They moved closer, but before they heard anything else, someone had accidently knocked the radio of the counter, and it smashed onto the rock floor. The bartender groaned.

"Hold on! Don't worry, I'll fix it," said Ed, rolling up his sleeves.

"Wait, brother, can I try this time?" asked Al. Ed shrugged, and pulled his sleeves back down.

"Sure, why not?" Al put a finger onto the ground and started rubbing a symbol. Kakashi was now very close, and could make out what it looked like. It was two circles, with three triangles within it. But before he could think about it anymore, Al had placed his hands on the ground, beside the symbol. Again came the blue shimmering sparks, and this time, the pieces of the damaged radio came together and snapped back into perfect condition. It crackled for a moment, and then started playing again. Again, the ninjas were dumbfounded.

"Do you think it's some kind of jutsu?" murmured Kakashi. Itachi shook his head.

"Not anything I've ever seen. Besides, this is a parallel dimension; I don't think they would know about chakra…" Itachi thought for a moment, and then a thought struck him. He put his hands together in the classic rat symbol, and tried to draw up chakra. Nothing happened. Kakashi glanced at him, bemused. For the second time in a row, Itachi shook his head.

"Chakra doesn't exist in this universe. We're stuck. Madara even got rid of our powers…" he said sadly. Kakashi blinked, and stared at Itachi. Then Ed started yelling.

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING SHORTIE? MIDGET? HALF-PINT? I'M STILL GROWING!" he screamed. Kakashi looked at him for a moment, and a grin. The word "alchemy" and "alchemists" had just popped up- the word that described what Ed and Al were, and the word that described what they did.

"I believe," started Kakashi, still smiling, "that we may have to learn alchemy."

Devin: My apologies, fans. This chapter got out very late, I was away for awhile.

Fans: YOU PROCRASTINATED!

Devin: No, no, no, you see, I was away-

Austin: I'm pretty sure you were only away from the computer.

Devin: Fine. FINE. Don't believe me, but I have been busy with homework, overprotective parents who force me to do extra work, private lessons, rehearsals, and the essence of time itself, because my parents set up mandatory logoff. So technically, it ain't my fault. Kay, glad I got that out, rate, subscribe, comment, and please accept my apologies for this delayed chapter and all the ones that are defiantly going to come up…

Fans: NEVER!