A/N: First fanfiction, feel free to comment on spelling an grammar.

Disclaimer: Naruto and Fullmetal Alchemist do not belong to me.

Of Blondes, Toads, and Cats

Prologue

The shopkeeper stared at the sight before him with his jaw slightly hanging. He was used to strange people visiting him for his rare scrolls and sometimes seeking tidbits of information he collected…but those strange ones were always obviously ninja. (Even if they didn't wish to reveal themselves as such.) They would walk with the grace of a cat but their muscles would be taut as bulls pulling a cart…except for the loud and annoying inexperienced ones. He had two ninjas in mind with that description. One incredibly blonde, blue-eyed and obsessed with ramen and the other a brunette with dark eyes masked my orange goggles. Though each were many years in the past from when he was much younger.

But this…this was beyond his normal sort of weird.

The two customers browsed his selection unaware of their keen observer…the first to enter was the short and bad tempered one. The boy (man?) had entered his shop loudly yelling something about cats ("You can't have one Al!") and a horse (a fire-breathing mustang, perhaps a animal summons?) giving orders. He was blonde with foreign eyes of gold and wore long sleeves even in the heat of midday. Jiro shivered. The Golden Sage had such eyes, but his were only for battle, or so Jiro has heard. The man had intelligent eyes and had obvious experience with aged texts but he did not look to be familiar with some of the common ninja techniques residing in the scroll he was breezing through.

The other was the complete opposite. He was very calm and quite mannered with a kind and gentle voice…and tall. Very tall. As for his other physical characteristics…the shopkeeper couldn't say. The man was completely covered in armor with the only visible body part being his glowing eyes! Metal everywhere; he had only heard of this in the north where the samurai resided…but that wasn't right. This man had no sword or any weapon at all to speak of. And although he wore all this, his foot steps were still quiet enough to rival some of the moderately stealthy ninja's he had seen come round.

When the short one finally noticed the shopkeeper in his corner, he narrowed his golden eyes, but said nothing for the while. When the foreign man finally spoke, it was with an accent the shopkeeper had never heard, even though it was very light.

"So, are you Old Jiro, ze renown owner of zis shop?" he said with a cocky smile.

"I, for certain, wouldn't call someone 'old' if I were looking for information young sir. I'm only in my late forties," I reply humorously. "But yes, that would be me you speak of. What can I do for you two today?"

He snorted, "I'm not sure you can help but we'll ask you anyway," he replied. Jiro was slightly offended by this comment but said nothing.

"Oni-san! Be polite!" chided the giant person in the armor…so they were brothers? What a size difference. Huh.

"Fine," grumbled the short one. He then looked at me again and said, "Sorry, long day." I nodded for him to continue so he did. "What I wanted to ask was, do you have any information on ze sightings of ze talking toad chimeras? We need to determine if these rumors are accurate or not. Ze last I heard, it was in ze area and if there was anything to know, you would know it. So could you help us…please."

The blonde glanced up at his taller brother, who nodded, then back at Jiro.

Jiro looked thoughtful for a moment while he was trying think what could possibly be a "chimera". The talking toad part caught his attention though...Did this man seek the assistance of the Toad Sage...as in one of the Legendary Sanin? He frowned as he recalled hearing that the man was killed years ago...but I he also had heard rumors of his successor. That was the Golden Sage. And there had been sightings of giant toads in the past few weeks, so the boys in front of him weren't far off. He sighed, ending his musings.

"I've only heard rumors of toads being sighted a couple miles south of the town. Though I advise that you don't try and antagonize them, they are rather large, not to mention their master...Why are you looking for them?"

The blonde seemed to have some sort of conversation with his brother through eye contact alone before he answered, "Some one has been bad and has messed with things that ought to be left alone."

And then they were gone, leaving a few coins on the counter in their haste.

Jiro blinked. Maybe they were ninja.