New Chapter, hope you enjoy.
It was a little while later that all the gods found themselves in the throne room, the seat of their power.
Most of the demigods who had fought were in there with them, wondering who the hooded stranger was.
Hades had shown up a little while ago with an army of undead and had quickly routed the remainder of Kronos' forces.
Said Titan, still in Luke's body, was thrashing on the ground, shouting curses, as he was held by dozens of chains that blocked most of his movement.
Naruto, meanwhile, was holding Artemis in his arms, as she was still unconscious from Typhon's blow, while the other Olympians, particularly Apollo, glared at him.
As the moon goddess woke up, she found herself encircled by two strong arms, holding her easily. Not fully awake, she settled herself into a more comfortable position, shifting slightly to press herself against the warm chest.
Most of the occupants in the room raised an eyebrow when the moon goddess started to get cuddly, with a man no less. Artemis' dislike for men was well known, so to see her snuggling into one's arms was somewhat disconcerting.
"Give her to me," Apollo said, frowning in his fifteen feet high form. Normally, that would've looked frightening, having a god loom over someone, but the man merely raised an eyebrow.
"Alright, fine," he said. "I have to go do something anyway."
He handed Artemis over to Apollo, who reduced in size to be able to carry his sister, then stepped outside, walking past the demigods who were wondering what he was doing.
Naruto walked down the steps of Olympus, heading for one specific area. A garden that was being used as a makeshift morgue, where all the demigods who had fallen during battle were resting. He was looking for one, specifically.
The body of Silena Beauregard, wrapped in a hot-pink shroud embroidered with an electric spear. She was the only one left, as all the others had been burned.
Clarisse La Rue, daughter of Ares, was sitting silently, grieving for her friend. Her head lifted at the stranger who approached, and she wiped her cheeks hurriedly, removing all traces of her tears. The stranger wasn't interested in that though.
With a single move, he kneeled down, pulled out a strange knife and slit the shroud down the middle, revealing the pale body of the once beautiful girl. Her face had been mangled by drakon poison, and the stranger examined her, turning his head to the side inquisitively.
"What the hell are you doing?" Clarisse demanded, drawing her sword and pointing it at the hooded stranger, who didn't move and didn't answer. He lifted a hand and swung it down slightly.
Suddenly, her sword was ripped from her grasp by an unseen force, clattering to the ground. That didn't reduce her anger one bit, but it did give her some warning to not point weapons at the man.
Other demigods had been drawn by her shout, and were wondering what was going. Several of the gods were also approaching. They all gathered around to see Silena's body being disturbed, and angry murmurs soon began to run through the crowd.
No one angrier than the Goddess of Love herself.
"What are you doing to my daughter?" she asked, her voice deathly cold. Most of the occupants of the courtyard shivered; when Aphrodite was angry, she'd been known to tear men's nuts off.
He didn't answer.
Naruto looked behind him, his face hidden by the cowl of his cloak, and his eyes narrowed. A puff of smoke issued next to him, and an identical, cloaked figure appeared, looking at the crowd.
"Make sure no one interferes," he said, and his clone nodded.
"Got it, boss," he said, and crossed his arms, his stance giving a clear message: no one passes.
Naruto's hand descended to right above Silena's face and started to glow green. Everyone stared in amazement as the wounds, caused by the poison of the drakon, began to recede, until Silena was just as beautiful as before.
His hands descended lower, to near her throat, and from her mouth issued a stream of liquid, green and smoking, that gathered in between Naruto's hands, suspended by his chakra.
He drew in a breath and a stream of fire issued from his mouth and incinerated the poison, causing several gasps from the crowd.
"Phew, that should do it," he said to himself, and turned away from the crowd for a second.
"Do what?" Aphrodite hissed. "Why are you disturbing my daughter's remains, you monster?"
Naruto stiffened slightly, before relaxing again.
"Haven't been called that in a while. Forgot what it feels like," he said, before throwing off his hood, showing his face for the first time to many people. Many of the girls, despite the situation, blushed.
Naruto, for his part, cracked his neck and sat down, next to Silena's body, facing the crowd, before sighing.
"Here goes," he said. He put his hands together in another seal, and smiled painfully.
"Outer Path: Samsara of Heavenly Life Technique," he said, and immediately stiffened.
For a few seconds, nothing happened. But then, Naruto began to age.
All of the occupants were stunned as the blond aged before their eyes, lines adding to his face, his hair growing silvery-white. He shook with strain, and blood began to drip out of his nose, but still he kept going.
"What are you doing? Stop it!" Clarisse said, walking over and trying to get at him, but the clone stood in front.
"Wait," he hissed, and the daughter of Ares saw that he was aging too.
"Why? You guys are killing yourselves!" she said.
"We'll be fine, but if you interrupt now, you might destroy any chance of this being a success."
"What are you doing?" The clone smiled.
"You'll see," he said.
With a final, shattering gasp, Naruto finished, pulling away from Silena's body and drawing heaving breaths.
Clarisse, having been let go as the clone puffed into smoke, rushed to his side.
"Gah, fuck I hate using that, especially with Shadow Clones." he said. He seemed to be growing younger again, but still appeared to be in his late-fifties. "I used to be so much better at this crap,"
"What the hell did you just do?" she asked, and he grinned tiredly.
"You'll see." He pulled himself upwards, kneeling at Silena's side, and placed his thumb and forefinger on her brow, near her temples.
"Now will you finally show us why you are desecrating my daughter's body?" Aphrodite asked savagely, and he looked up at her.
"Sure," he said, and his body seemed to glow for a second, before he pulled his hand away.
Most of the people in the garden nearly had a heart attack when Silena Beauregard sat up, gasping, and very much alive.
"Hey, hey! Take it easy!" Naruto said as she looked at him with wild eyes.
"What... where?" she asked, and the blond grabbed her by the shoulders and forced her to look at him.
"Take a deep breath... and relax," he said slowly, and she nodded slightly, calming down a little.
As the rest of the crowd tried to get their jaws working again, Naruto slowly helped the girl to her feet, easing her up and whispering soothing words into her ear. He looked up at Aphrodite, who's brain had fried trying to process exactly what had happened.
"S-Silena?" she said tentatively, afraid it was an illusion, a cruel trick to get her hopes up. Silena looked up for the first time and recognized her mother.
"M-mom?" she asked, and walked forward slowly. They embraced, both crying, as most of the crowd looked at the emotional scene.
Naruto was left standing a little bit off to the side, a slight smile on his lips. Clarisse came up behind him and looked at him with awe.
"Did you just... bring her back to life?" she asked. He turned around to look at her.
"Yep." The daughter of Ares nodded, stunned.
"And... how, did you bring her back to life?"
"Trade secret," he said. He was about to say something else, but was interrupted when Aphrodite embraced him.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you," she said. "Thank you for bringing her back!"
"Uh, sure," he replied. "My pleasure."
"Wait," Silena said. "If you brought me back, could you do it with someone else?"
He looked at her and raised an eyebrow as he and Aphrodite separated.
"Depends. Why?"
"My... friend, Charlie, he died a little while ago. Do you think that you could bring him back to life?"
"How did he die?" Naruto asked, and Silena broke off, not expecting that question.
"He... blew up, in an explosion."
"Then no, I can't."
"What?" she asked, stunned. "Why not?" He sighed.
"The body of a person needs to be intact for me to bring them back to life. That's why I had to take the drakon poison out of your system. If he was blown up, then he's gone. Which, incidentally, is part of why I brought you back."
Everyone was paying rapt attention to the man as he sighed and scratched the back of his head.
"This is gonna be kind of an awkward question, but you were Kronos' spy, right?" he asked, and everyone blinked as they remembered. In all the excitement of Silena's resurrection, in truth, they had forgotten. Now people started to look at the girl with more than a few distrustful looks.
"W-well, yes, but that's not important right now!" Aphrodite said, drawing closer to her daughter, as if to shield her from all the distrust.
"Of course it's not. I don't know about the others here, but I certainly don't care that you were a spy," he said, speaking directly to Silena, who nodded silently. "But the fact of the matter is, no matter your actions when you arrived in Manhattan, you were still a spy before that. The judges of the dead will still consider you a traitor, so if I had let you go to the Underworld, you most likely would have been put in the Fields of Punishment."
Most people shuddered at the thought, then realized exactly how much the man had helped the young half-blood.
"And speaking of which," he continued. "I need to have a talk with all the gods, you included."
Aphrodite blinked as the mysterious man turned away and walked back up the steps.
Naruto sighed as he re-entered the god's throne room, drawing several glances from the still-huge occupants of the room. Most of the gods raised an eyebrow at the small crowd that followed him through the doors. Artemis, who had woken up, looked with interest at the man who had saved her.
The blond raised a hand, and tree roots split the marble floor and formed a table, around which fourteen chairs appeared. He took one, and looked up at the tall forms who were staring in amazement at their new table.
"Sit down. We need to talk."
"We're fine on our thrones," Zeus said belligerently. Naruto's eyes narrowed.
"I'm sorry, did I give you the impression that I was asking?" The gods all stirred angrily at his words.
"How dare you speak to us like that!" Hades growled. "You are a mere mortal! You should bow at our feet!"
"Oh, piss off," Naruto snapped, causing many jaws to drop. "I've had enough of your attitude. And actually, I'm immortal, so put that in your pipe and smoke it."
Many of the gods in the room were flickering with light, about to attain their true godly forms, as they grit their teeth in anger. But something in Naruto's eyes gave them pause, something that said that he was supremely unworried by the prospect of being attacked by gods.
One by one, they all descended to normal human size, still glowering at the blond, and took their seats.
"Thank you," he said courteously, then looked at the empty spot. "Hestia, you come too."
Said goddess, who was still in her form of a young girl, looked up from her hearth and stared in confusion at the blond.
"I'm not on the council of the gods anymore," she said quietly.
"And?" Naruto asked. She blinked.
"Um... well..." she began, but honestly couldn't come up with an answer.
"Hestia is not welcome," Zeus said, causing said goddess to look down. "If you have business, it shall be with us."
"Hestia is welcome," Naruto returned, glaring at the King of the Gods. "Because unlike you, I actually care about what other people think."
He turned back to the goddess of the hearth, and gestured to the seat, smiling. She walked forward and sat down rather awkwardly.
"Okay," Naruto said, crossing his arms. "This court is now in session."
"Court?" Poseidon asked.
"You are all going to be judged," the blond, no trace of his former smile remaining. "And if I find you guilty, punished."
The gods stirred in confusion and anger.
"What gives you the right to judge us?" Athena asked, more out of actual curiosity than anger. At this, Naruto's eyes narrowed.
"It's high time somebody did. I gotta say, the gods have done a wonderful job of fucking up my world," he said.
"Your world?" Artemis asked.
"This world is ours!" Zeus snarled. "It belongs to us!"
"Actually, this world is currently under my jurisdiction," the blond said. "Especially since I'm the one who created it."
Everyone blinked.
"You lie!" Hades growled.
"Only with ladies," Naruto said, smirking, causing several goddesses to blush. "And anyway, I'm gonna be judging you guys now." He turned to the Lord of the Dead.
"Lets start with you," he began. "Let's get a list of your meritorious achievements. Not much, besides kidnapping Persephone. Seriously? I mean, you just up and kidnap someone to be your wife? What the hell, man? That's just creepy."
"Don't change the subject!" Hades said, though he looked distinctly uncomfortable. Most of the goddesses in the room were glaring at the Lord of the Dead, especially Demeter.
"Finally, someone tells him off for that!" she said. Naruto gave a faint smile, then turned to Poseidon.
"Poseidon. You, actually, are one of the ones that I have the least problems with. You seem a decent enough guy, though you are still partly to blame for all this."
The God of the Sea was about to question him on that, but the blond turned to Zeus before he could.
"And you," he said, glaring at the Lord of the Sky. "You are one of my least favorite gods. The head honcho, the big man upstairs, the idiot who almost screwed everything up."
The last word caused Zeus to glower at him, sparking dangerously.
"You dare-"
"Shut it," Naruto said, returning Zeus' glare with one of his own. "The gods are the reason that this entire world almost ended, and the blame for that falls almost entirely on you."
"That's enough!" Zeus shouted, standing up violently, throwing his chair back. "I will not sit here and be accused of this!"
"Yes you will. Sit down," Naruto said calmly. His unflustered attitude only infuriated the god more.
"Enough!" he said. "This is completely ridiculous. I'm leaving!"
"I said-" Naruto began, his eyes becoming red and slitted. "Sit... down."
Everyone in the room gulped slightly as the blond's voice became deep and angry, almost demonic. Even the King of the Gods, who wasn't intimidated easily, paused at the man's words. He wordlessly took his seat again, not showing the apprehension he felt.
Naruto subsided, palming his face with a sigh.
"Poseidon, Apollo, Artemis, Hermes, Athena, Demeter, Aphrodite, Hestia and Hephaestus. Those are the gods whom I have no problem with. Ares is an idiot who almost cause a war just because he felt like it. Hades is a bit of a creep, but not too bad of a guy, considering that he's been an outcast since the Titanomachy. Hera is a bit cruel, but okay. Zeus is the one that I'm most pissed off at."
"You can't talk about my queen like that!" the King of the Gods said angrily, while Hera was still trying to process how insulted she felt. Naruto raised an eyebrow at Zeus' words.
"Oh, cause you've been doing so much better? Sleeping with mortals since you were born? If I had a wife, I wouldn't just cheat on her. I would rather die before doing that. Hera is a much better person than you deserve."
Zeus grit his teeth as Hera blinked in surprise. First he insults her, then he defends her? Several other goddesses looked at the man with new interest as he sighed again.
"Both of you have been screwing with mortals since you were born, Zeus with ladies, Hera with Zeus' children. I'm not saying that the other gods haven't had mortal offspring, but at least when the world is on the line, they can keep it in their pants, though Poseidon, that was a bit of a screw-up on your part."
Poseidon had the decency to look sheepish.
"Who're you calling a screw-up, prick?" came an angry voice, and they all turned to see Percy Jackson, panting and pissed, glaring at Naruto.
"Oh, hey, you're okay," he said calmly. Percy walked forward and slapped the blond on the back of the head. "Ow! What the hell was that for?!"
"That's for throwing me off of Olympus, jerkweed! I could have been killed!" Percy growled, and Naruto stood up, getting in the demigods face.
"Key word there being 'could'! You seem plenty safe to me, douchebag!"
"You wanna go, motherfucker?"
"Bring it on, asswipe!"
Every person in the room sweatdropped at their performance as they stood chest to chest, nostrils flaring and eyes narrowed.
"Could you guys knock it off?" Thalia, daughter of Zeus, shouted at them. They both blinked and looked at her, surprised. They stepped away from each other, and Naruto scratched the back of his head sheepishly.
"Sorry for throwing you out," he said, holding out a hand. Percy took it a bit reluctantly.
"Yeah, sure," he replied suspiciously, and they shook. Naruto sat down again as Percy stepped back to the remainder of the crowd, still looking incensed.
"Anyway, where was I?" the blond asked, rubbing his eyelids.
"A bit of a screw up on Poseidon's part," Artemis said.
"Right. I'm glad that worked out, by the way. And speaking of which," he said. "There's something I need all the gods to do."
"Why should we do anything for you?" Zeus snarled. "All you've done since you've arrived is insult and threaten us."
Naruto blinked at the sheer idiocy of the god's statement. Most of the people around the room looked at Zeus, incredulous that he could be so ungrateful.
"I'm also the one who defeated both Typhon and Kronos," the blond said, his voice quiet. "You really do have an inflated sense of your own importance."
"I'm a GOD!" Zeus yelled, standing up again. "I'm many times more powerful than you!" Naruto raised an eyebrow.
"Says the one who was getting his ass kicked by a guy that was cut into a thousand pieces. And if we were going by levels of power..." he began, slouching in his chair and picking his teeth. "Well, imagine if a fly crawled up to your table and started to get snarky."
Most of the occupants of the room gulped slightly. Zeus, however, was simply too far gone by now.
"I'm more important than you! I rule over this entire planet!"
"Exactly," the blond said. Everyone looked at him in confusion. "You rule over this planet. This one, minuscule planet, in one tiny solar system, in a galaxy that's barely out of it's diapers."
Naruto glared at the King of the Gods.
"I'm old, Zeus. Very, very, very old. So, I invite you to try to comprehend how insignificant I find you."
Zeus was about to retort, but Naruto sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose.
"Look, we could trade insults until I grow old and die, which is unlikely, so I'll just lay it out for you. Currently, I'm in a bit of a predicament. Actually, I'm trapped." Everyone blinked in surprise.
"If you're so powerful, then how could you have been trapped?" Athena asked, curious.
"I was taking a nap." Naruto said, scratching the back of his head sheepishly, causing the occupants of the room to face-fault. "Honestly, I'd gotten careless. Over 3 million years, give or take, had passed since I'd last been here, and I wasn't really expecting any trouble." Then his eyes narrowed.
"A bunch of guys trapped me inside of an egg and buried me, sealing almost all of my power away."
"An egg?" Zeus asked contemptuously.
"Yes, an egg," Naruto said calmly, but everyone could tell that he was getting more and more annoyed with Zeus' attitude.
"So powerful, and yet you get stuck in an egg? Was it from a chicken or an ostrich?" the King of the Gods snorted. Naruto fixed him with a glare.
"Not quite. This egg happens to be twelve feet tall with alternating, foot-thick layers of diamond, adamant and titanium, then fixed with some of the most complex and dangerous power-repressing seals known to man," Naruto said, his voice deathly quiet. Everyone gulped, and for once, Zeus was at a loss for words.
"And did I mention that this egg happens to be buried about 600 feet below the earth?" he asked, and everyone shook their heads, trying to imagine what he was talking about.
"How long have you been there?" Artemis asked, horrified.
"Well, I started around thirty thousand years ago."
"And you haven't been up since?" Athena wondered. Naruto's fists tightened.
"The descendants of the men who put me there guard me all the time. They keep me on a leash, only letting me out when they want to destroy something. They fixed me with some pretty good seals, I can't get out of them or harm the men who use them. So I'm stuck doing their bidding."
"What do you mean?" Hestia asked. He gave her a pained look.
"Let me put it this way. Last time they hauled me up, Noah was building a boat," he said, causing everyone's eyes to widen. Then his face wrinkled, like he'd just tasted something sour. "You've got to get me out!"
Everyone raised an eyebrow. He seemed pretty desperate.
"Why? What's the matter?" Athena asked.
"Inside the egg, it's... too horrible to think about..."
"What?" Aphrodite questioned worriedly. Naruto looked like he was having a panic attack.
"It stinks! It smells like someone dropped a dead animal into a puddle of tar and lit it on fire!" he said, making choking noises. "Plus, there's a aftertaste like diesel! Like a diesel-y tinge, to it!"
Everyone sweatdropped.
"And you think we can break you out?" Zeus said, raising an eyebrow.
"There's you ridiculous bravado again; of course you can't!" Naruto said, causing everyone to look at him, surprised.
"But you said-" Apollo began, but was cut off.
"I said you could help me, but even all the gods together won't be able to break me out. The power repressing seals are too complex for that, and if it works on me, it'll work on you," the blond said. "However, you can help me take the bullets out of my captor's gun, so to speak."
"What do you mean?" Athena asked.
"I mean, if you can kill the one's who are controlling me, then I can do the rest. And besides," he said, glaring at Zeus. "I do believe that you owe me."
Zeus fidgeted as all the gods looked at him.
"We do owe the guy one," Thalia said to her father. Naruto looked over at her.
"Two."
"One and a half," she replied. They both blinked, then gave matching grins.
"This seems very familiar," Percy said, scratching the back of his head.
"So will you help?" Naruto asked, looking around the room at the assembled gods. Artemis stood up.
"Even if the other's won't, then I will," she said, giving him a slight nod, which he returned gratefully. Aphrodite stood up next.
"You saved my daughter," she said, smiling at him. "I'll help too."
"As will I," Athena stated. "After all, you did help us. It's only fair that we help you in return."
"I agree," Hestia said.
Naruto looked around as each of the gods mumbled their consent, except for Zeus. Said god looked around at everyone who was staring at him expectantly.
"Oh, fine," he grumbled. "Do what you want, but I'll have no part in it."
As he finished, a clap of thunder sounded, and Zeus was gone. Naruto rolled his eyes.
"Jeez, dramatic, much?" he said, and several goddesses giggled. Then he clapped his hands and said in a happy voice,
"Okay! Who's up for some prison-breaking?"
There's chapter 2 for your enjoyment.
Current girls stand at: Artemis, Athena, Aphrodite, Calypso, Hera, Hestia, Thalia, Silena, Reyna, Rhea, and possibly Persephone. There won't be any Naruto girls in here, just to let you know.
