Hello everyone, it's acw28, back with the next chapter of Kitsune of the Moon!

So yeah, it's been awhile since my last update to this story. I'm sure my regular readers already know my reason for such a long period between updates; life, school, starting/updating other stories. On top of that my laptop broke, but thanks to the magic of Christmas sales I've got a new one. As always, I apologize for such a long wait (especially with that cliffhanger), so let's get right to the story.

Last note, please vote in my poll!

Disclaimer: I don't own the Percy Jackson series or anything Rick Riordan has written.


Thalia was not having a good night, but then again she never really considered much in her life as "good." Her mother treated her like a parasite since birth, getting drunk and trying to forget about her daughter more often than naught. Then of course it turns out her dad is Zeus, as in king of the Greek gods, but he broke some oath which caused untold misfortune to follow his daughter. She supposed there once were two good things in her young life, her best friend Naruto Namikaze, who she nicknamed whiskers due to his unique birthmarks that only she could see, and her little brother Jason. By some miracle Beryl Grace cleaned up her act and Zeus came back, even had another kid, but much like everything her mother ruined it. The woman went back to her spoiled, drunken ways and drove Zeus away once more. Really Thalia should have left then, but she loved her little brother too much to leave him with that woman, that was until she was nine. The girl wasn't sure how, but Beryl had abandoned Jason in one of the parks. In turn Thalia abandoned her mother. She went back to the park to try and find Jason, hoping maybe the Namikazes would take her in, but she couldn't find her brother. The area holding too many bad memories for her, Thalia ran east, hoping to find a better life.

So far, she hadn't found that. She turned twelve not too long ago, in those three years she'd almost walked coast to coast, going from California to Virginia. Being a daughter of Zeus, her sent was strong and attracted many monsters. Most of these she fried with a little lightening, but there were a few that were just too powerful for her to fight, resulting in the child running away. Luckily monsters weren't the only thing she encountered, the girl had meet another demigod. Luke Castellan, a son of Hermes, was two years older than her, but was much more experienced to the world of gods and monsters. It was he who gave Thalia a basic run down of the common monsters they might face and their weakness to Celestial Bronze. Admittedly Thalia wasn't the world's greatest swordswoman, although she could hold her own with a spear just fine.

Thalia never did ask about Luke's past and why he ran away and he gave her the same curtesy. They'd ran into each other in the Midwest and Luke had decided to tag along with her on her journey east. Currently the pair were in Richmond, having been drawn by a powerful feeling to an old mansion. There the duo met Halcyon Green, an old man and son of Apollo who had visions of the future. However the gods were angered by the man's gift and cursed him to be confided in his childhood home, forced to watch as demigod after demigod fell victim to the monster, a Leucrotae, that was also trapped in the house. Thankful between Thalia and Luke, the children were able to convince the older demigod to help them, ultimately resulting in Halcyon sacrificing himself to destroy the Leucrotae and allow the other two to escape his home. Before his passing, the son of Apollo gifted the two the source of the trap, a replica of the Aegis shield, complete with Medusa image. The old man also gifted the pair a Celestial Bronze dagger he'd been given long ago.

It was hard to believe those events occurred not even an hour ago. Now the pair were huddled near the entrance of an ally, the sounds of monsters coming near. "You ready?" Luke asked as he pulled his sword from his backpack, she didn't ask how he fit it in there.

"Ready." Thalia confirmed as she transformed her bracelet into her Aegis shield and her can of mace into a spear. As the two settled into their combat stances, Thalia spied the approaching monsters, thankfully it appeared to only be a pack of hellhounds. As the monsters charged forward, Thalia braced herself to meet the assult, only for the unexpected to happen.

Right as the monsters neared the edge of the surrounding buildings, Thalia caught something falling in the edge of her vision. Whatever it was, it was shaped like a person but all she could make out was a blond head and a flash of silver. The person landed on the back of the first hellhound, driving something into the base of the monster's skull. They then vaulted off the decaying monster and kicked the nearest living one into the side of the building before rushing forward and using their weapon, which Thalia now saw was a silver knife with a ring under the cross guard, to slash the monster's throat open. As the last two hellhounds charged forward, the stranger spun their knife by the ring, the weapon transforming into what looked to be a silver M1911 pistol. Moving fluidly, the person aimed and took two quick shots at the monsters, hitting both between the eyes. The last hellhound tried to pounce on the person from the side, only for the figure to grab the monster by the throat, spin their gun back into a knife and sink the blade into the monster's chest. Only now that the everything calmed down, and the person was standing in profile, that Thalia was able to see the three lines on their check.

"Whiskers?" Thalia called out before she could stop herself.

Turning, Naruto saw his old friend and called back, "Thalia? How has it been, it's been years."

Thalia laughed before replying, "I'll say, what are you doing here?"

Before Naruto could respond, Luke interrupted. Pointing to the other blond with his sword, the older boy asked, "You know this guy?"

"Yeah, Naruto and I were friends before I ran away. Although," The girl turned her attention back to Naruto as he went about collecting the teeth of the slain hellhounds, the trophies he'd earned, "that doesn't explain why you ran away, your parents were always such kind people."

"I'll explain back at my hotel room." Naruto waved off the question as he stood back up. "But first, come on Annabeth, time to leave."

The pair of demigods were confused as to why Naruto would be calling out to an empty ally, only for a plate of iron to shift to the side, revealing a seven year old girl with long blond hair and grey eyes. Hesitantly, the girl looked over the two new comers before quickly rushing over to Naruto and hiding behind his leg, peaking out with a weary glance. Sensing the question, Naruto quickly explained, "Daughter of Athena, not fitting in her dad's new wife and kids. She just ran away and I've been looking after her ever sense. I was hoping to find a cache of Ares' weapons so she could defend herself, but so far nothing."

Hearing Naruto's plans, Thalia lightly elbowed Luke to gain his attention before holding out her hand. After a moment of though, the boy dug around in his back pack before retrieving the dagger and handing it to his friend. Weapon in hand, Thalia slowly walked towards the other two before kneeling down to Annabeth's level. Holding out the dagger, the daughter of Zeus said, "I think this would be perfect for you."

Hesitantly, Annabeth reached out and took the weapon. Sliding the blade form the sheath, the girl stared enchanted by the blade. She was brought back to reality when Naruto cleared his throat and nodded to Thalia. Sheathing the dagger, Annabeth gave the other girl a quick hug and said thank you before retreating back behind Naruto.

"So," Naruto began, trying to get the conversation back on track, "it seems like you've got quite the story, so again, let's head back to my hotel room."


It turned out Naruto's room was less a room and more of a suite with two bedrooms, a living space, and a bathroom. Looking around, Luke asked, "How did you manage this?"

"Pulled the tape recorder trick from Home Alone 2." Naruto answered with a smile. He would have said more, except Annabeth tugged on his sleeve. Rolling his eyes, but maintaining his smile, Naruto dug in his pocket before pulling out a white, rectangular device with a large screen and a grey circle underneath, plugged in was a pair of ear buds. Handing over the electronic Naruto said, "Here you go, just don't drain the battery again." Annabeth returned the smile before running to claim one of the chairs as hers. Thalia watched as the young girl turned the device on, then moved her thumb along the circle until the word 'Classical' was surrounded by blue.

Breaking the silence, Luke asked, "Just what is that thing?"

"Apollo called it an iPod, said that mortals would invent them in a few years so he got me one early, preloaded with every song in existence; past, present, and future. Got it for my eight birthday. It was a nice little party with my parents." Naruto half explained, half bragged.

Raising an eyebrow, Luke said, "Never knew the gods to be that interested in their children's lives, or be friends with mortal step-parents." After a moment, both Naruto and Thalia burst out laughing. "And just what's so funny?" Luke demanded.

"That you think I'm a son of Apollo, or that I'm a demigod in general." Naruto answered as he got his laughter under control. "I'm just clear sighted like my parents. They were friends with a few gods and goddess, but never slept around."

"Then what's up with your birthmarks, and your transforming knife?" Luke pressed for answers, resulting in a glare from Thalia, even though she was just as curious.

If Naruto was bothered by the question he didn't show it. Shrugging his shoulders, the boy answered, "As far as I can tell the whiskers are the result of a curse since my mom choose to marry my dad instead of being a shire priestess. As for the knife," Naruto paused to draw out his bowie knife, "it's enchanted silver, a gift from one of my mom's friends." He then turned his attention to Thalia and asked, "So what happened to you?"

"Life just got too hard with my mom." Thalia began, "Found out about Zeus and everything else when I was eight, ran away a year later, been wandering ever since. You?"

"I think my dad may have been investigating some rogue cyclops," Naruto began, "he usually tried to get his hands on all the monster cases so no one got hurt. In any case both he and my mom got attacked by monsters. A couple cyclops tried to get me at school, I lost them at my house and disappeared in the crowd."

"So what now?" Luke asked. "From the sounds of it we've all been running away for the past few years. We can't be the only demigods around, there has to be others, people before us. How did they survive?"

"As best I can tell, they went to camp." Naruto answered.

"Camp?" Thalia and Luke asked in sync.

"Hold on." Naruto said as he walked into one of the bedrooms. After several moments of shuffling and muted curses, the bot returned carrying a backpack. After a second of digging around, the preteen pulled out a thick book entitled Guide to Myths. "Camp Halfblood, a place where demigods train. This book mentions it several times."

As Naruto spoke, Luke began thumbing through the book, pausing on a set of pages, the one on the right depicting a portrait of a woman with the head of a cat, the left page written in a series of strange pictures. "How can you even read this? And this woman doesn't even look like any Greek goddess I know."

Answering each question in turn, Naruto said, "I can't read all of it, just the English, Japanese, Greek, and a small bit of the Latin parts. The hieroglyphics and the runes I'm lost on. And she's not Greek, I think she's Egyptian."

"Egyptian?" Luke questioned before quickly mocking the thoughts. "Please, it's only the Greek stuff that's real, everything else is just made up."

Naruto glared and challenged, "All regular mortals say everything we fight against is just a myth, who's to say the other mythologies aren't also real?"

"Alright, that's enough." Thalia stated as she moved between the two boys to defuse the argument. Hoping to get things back to a more peaceful conversation, she asked Naruto, "You mentioned a camp?"

"Right," Naruto began as he dug in his backpack again, pulling out a travel atlas. Opening the a map of the entire United States, the blond began, "I figured out that Camp Halfblood is in New York, somewhere in Long Island. I was planning to just head straight there, but the last Hephaestus TV signal I managed to pick up said something about an unusual amount of monster amassing on New York's southern boarder." The teen then traced a path through the state, "Right now my plan is to circumvent the usual route, take a train past the camp and come back through Connecticut and maybe take a boat to Long Island."

"I don't think my Uncle would be too kind to me being on the water." Thalia spoke up, only for her concern to be waved off.

"From what I read Poseidon is pretty mellow about everything, plus I'm guessing if Zeus broke the oath he wouldn't be the only one, Poseidon is just a bit more careful of covering his tracks." Naruto stated. "Besides, that's more so plan B. Right now I'm banking on the fact we'll run into satyr or an experienced camper on the way, that would make life so much easier."

The room was silent for a moment before Luke asked, "Can you even get into the camp? From what it sounds like the place is only meant for demigods, and I would expect there to be some deterrent to keep mortals out, even clearsighted ones."

"I don't know," Naruto admitted, "and I won't until we get there." Admittedly it was a little disconcerting for Thalia to see her friend so serious. Thankfully the tense in the air eased when Naruto's smile returned. "But that's a problem for another day. We'll rest for today, get a good meal, and then set out tomorrow. I've got a good feeling about this."

For the first time in a long time, Thalia smiled. Her brother may still be missing, but she had her friend back. Things were looking up.


Everything was going so wrong. Not having a better idea, the group ended up following Naruto's plan. They had gotten through New York without too much difficulty, aside from the usual monster that was easily dispatched. Unfortunately the train the group used went a little further than Naruto intended, stopping in Hartford instead of Stamford as intended. Worse, a large hoard of monsters had caught Thalia's sent. At first, due to Luke's insistence, the group had tried fighting back, but it soon became clear that the kids were just too out numbered. At first everyone could easily evade the monsters, but a cyclops had gotten a lucky swing in. Before being turned into dust, the monster had landed a heavy blow on Thalia's leg. Although he wasn't sure the severity of the injury, Naruto knew his friend couldn't walk, resulting in him and Luke taking turns helping the girl hobble along.

As they ran through the woods, Naruto's sensitive hearing picked up the sounds of the approaching monsters. It soon became apparent that the group would be overtaken in under an hour. With that in mind, the boy made a choice.

"Why are we stopping!" Annabeth demanded as Naruto carefully took Thalia's arm from around his neck and passed the girl to Luke.

"The hoard's moving too fast, we'll never make it out of the state, much less into New York, at the rate things are going." He then took off his backpack and gave it to Annabeth. Ruffling the girl's hair, the fellow blond said, "Watch my stuff for me until I get back, I'll meet up with you guys later."

Annabeth had tears in her eyes as she gave Naruto a quick hug and said, "Promise to stay alive."

"Don't worry," Naruto replied with a smile, "we'll see each other again." By now the group could hear the heavy footfalls of either cyclopes or giants. Turning serious, he turned to the older two of the group and said, "You guys better get going."

Although slow to start, with Luke having to almost drag both girls with him, the trio eventually started moving, Thalia calling over her shoulder, "Thanks whiskers! You might be doing something heroic, but don't expect a kiss next time I see you, although I will give you a dance when you catch up to us!"

The thought brought a smile to Naruto's lips. Getting ready, Naruto took out his iPod thinking, 'Okay, give me something to get me ready for the fight,' and hit shuffle. When a song called 'Whatever it Takes" by Imagine Dragons popped up, the boy raised an eyebrow, not familiar with either the tune or the band. Despite his reservations, it would have to do, the monsters were getting closer. After hitting play, and feeling a tingle travel down his spine at the opening notes, Naruto slide his iPod into his pocket before unsheathing his knife, a final thought going through his head as he charged to meet the monster.

'Mom…dad…other mom…I hope you're watching over me.'


Thalia, Annabeth and Luke had been running for the past half hour, none of them wanting to think about who they'd left behind. Finally making it out of the woods, Luke breathed a sigh of relief once he saw a road, with luck maybe they could hitch hick into the nearest town. After walking for a few minutes, the trio came to a road sign and Luke felt it was safe to take a break. As he carefully set Thalia on the ground, the girl noticed Annabeth crying, prompting her to ask, "What's the matter Annabeth?"

Although still a little shy around Luke, the girl had warmed up quickly to Thalia. Still crying a few tears, the daughter of Athena simply answered, "He didn't promise."

At first confused, Thalia quickly figured out the meaning behind the younger girl's words. Throughout their friendship, Thalia had seen Naruto pull off incredible things, such as doing a double backflip after jumping off the swings, simply because he promised he would. The fact he hadn't promised to meet back up with the group meant one thing.

Naruto didn't think he could survive.

Quickly picking herself up, and wincing at the pain in her leg, Thalia quickly ordered, "We have to go back."

"Are you crazy?" Luke questioned. "We're in no condition to fight, epically you. He knew what he was getting into and he still choose to stay. We have to make that choice mean something."

"I don't care!" Thalia yelled back, her eyes glowing. Extending her spear to act as a crutch, the girl continued, "He'd go back for any of us, so we're doing the same for him!"

Luke looked ready to argue even more, until he looked past Thalia and saw the hope in Annabeth's eyes, as well as that the nearest town was Westport. Taking off his backpack and retrieving his sword, the boy said, "I'm a son of Hermes, I'll move faster on my own." He then found some loose paper and scribbled something down. Handing the paper to Thalia, he continued, "You two head into town and go to this address, I should still have some things stashed there to help your leg." Before either girl could object to the new plan, Luke tossed his backpack to Annabeth and ran back into the woods.


Naruto had been fighting for what felt like an eternity, in reality probably closer to forty-five minutes. A slash here, a stab there, and an occasional gunshot thrown into the mix. Slowly but surely the boy was carving his path through the hoard, forcing the monsters to pay attention to him or be returned to Tartarus. Despite his countless victories, the boy wasn't unscratched. Several fresh cuts bleed from where hellhounds had nicked him, a large bruise formed where he got kicked by a giant, and he was fairly certain a cyclops's mace had dislocated his arm. Despite the injuries, Naruto had a smile on his face as he stood in his crater of destruction, he'd actually won.

Those thoughts left his head as he heard something running behind him. Acting quickly, Naruto turned on his heel and struck out with his knife, only for Luke to parry the blow away. "Easy, same side!" the older blond yelled.

"Sorry, you surprised me." Naruto simply stated as he began looking around for his iPod, the device having been knocked out of his pocket at some point during the fight.

As he surveyed the damage Naruto had caused, Luke could barely believe his eyes. No mortal, even clear sighted, should be able to vanquish so many monsters, few trained demigods could accomplish such a thing either. That left one last option. Walking up to the other boy, Luke asked, "You did all this?"

"Yeah, let me tell you it wasn't…." Naruto's reply was cut short as he felt a very intense, stabbing pain in his gut. Looking down, the blond saw a blade of a Celestial Bronze sword sticking out of his stomach before Luke pulled his blade back out. With his vision darkening, Naruto asked, "Why?"

"You've been lying to us." Luke simply said. Using his sword to point to the surrounding destruction, he continued, "There's no way a mortal could do all of this, you've got to be a monster. If you were telling the truth the bronze wouldn't have harmed you."

Luke had obviously convinced himself of his truth. Rather than waste breath trying to tell Luke he was wrong, Naruto managed to rasp out, "Once they learn what you've done to me, Thalia and Annabeth will abandon you."

"Not if I tell them you gave your life to save mine." Luke stated. Naruto didn't respond, he was already gone. Luke was about to walk away when his foot brushed against something. Bending down, Luke found Naruto's iPod. Smiling, he pocketed the music player, a detail to cement his story. Once more the son of Hermes began running.

If he had turned back he would have seen Naruto's body be engulfed in blue flames.


The past week had sucked. Thalia thought she'd be able to reconnect with her old friend, only for him to sacrifice himself saving them. It wasn't until the group had left Luke's home that she and Annabeth had learned what happened. Thalia didn't want to believe Luke until he handed her Naruto's iPod. Knowing no other human would have such a device, Thalia was forced to face the truth. To make matters worse, it took Naruto's death for the girl to acknowledge she had a crush on him, one that could have led to something more.

Annabeth handled Naruto's death equally as badly, having nightmares almost every night. Luke didn't seem to have any outward reaction, although Thalia suspected the boy was just in shock from seeing the other boy die.

So far the only positive thing that happened since the group left Westport was being found by Grover, a satyr who promised to get them to Camp Halfblood. Once there they could tell the director, who apparently was one of the gods being punished, about Naruto's sacrifice and help fast track the boy to Elysium, possibly even get him to the Isle of the Blest. Despite the promises, the words did little to comfort those still alive.

With all the hardships she and her friends had to endure, Thalia half believed that the trip was cursed. While Grover was a huge help, the satyr had gotten turned around once they were in New York City, resulting in the group falling into the trap of a cyclops. Thalia though she was a goner, but thankfully Annabeth was able to somehow slay the monster and free everyone, although it was much too late to travel anywhere, resulting in everyone camping in Central Park.

As Thalia tried breaking into one of the food stands to grab some potato chips for dinner, she heard the bushes rustling. Perhaps she was a little paranoid, but given all the monster attacks, the daughter of Zeus felt justified in instantly activating her spear and Aegis. As Thalia got ready for a fight, a voice called out, "Put thy shield away." From out of the bushes stepped a tall teenage girl with long dark hair, a silver jacket and a silver circlet on her head.

Although happy the noise was another person and not a monster, Thalia was still cautious and kept her weapons out as she asked, "Just who are you to try and order me around?"

"I am Zoë Nightshade, lieutenant to Artemis. By thy shield, you must be the daughter of Zeus." the older girl said. Without waiting for a response, Zoë pulled out a whistle and blew into it, producing a shrill noise. Nodding in satisfaction, the huntress turned back to Thalia and ordered, "Take me to the rest of your party."

Not having much choice, Thalia lead Zoë back to Annabeth, Grover and Luke, confident if a fight broke out the group could take the older girl. However upon arrival, Thalia was disheartened to see that her small group had already been surrounded by about fifteen identity dressed girls. While the girls seemed to ignore the others, Annabeth looked on in interest, Grover with a lovestruck expression, and Luke with a glare. Before Thalia could question what was going on, a new figure appeared from out of seemingly nowhere. The woman also wore a silver jacket, which matched her eyes and contrasted with her black hair.

"So, you're my new half-sister." The woman stated simply.

Not immediately recognizing which goddess this was, Thalia raised a challenging eyebrow and asked, "And you are?"

"Show respect to Lady Artemis!" Zoë immediately scolded the younger girl.

Before an argument could erupt, Artemis held up a hand, causing both girls to be quiet. Turning her full attention back to Thalia, Artemis stated, "Our information said there was another person among you."

"Naruto." Thalia began. At seeing the goddess nod, Thalia swallowed the lump in her throat as she continued, "he died making sure we were safe." Somehow saying those words added finality to her crush's fate.

After a few moments of silence, Artemis responded, "I see." Although there was no difference in her tone, one could see a hint of sadness in her silver eyes. "Zoë, I need to hunt tonight. Set up camp with the rest of the girls, have the boy and the satyr on the outskirts."

"Hey, those are my friends! You can't just split us up like that!" Thalia immediately challenged.

"Will thy relax," Zoë spoke up, "unlike some we don't abandon our…"

"Zoë enough." Artemis softly but sternly ordered. "Not tonight, just get everyone to bed." With that Artemis walked into the surrounding trees, disappearing into the wilderness.

The lieutenant fell silent, following her lady's orders. Thalia was about to walk back to her group when she noticed the huntress cutting a low hanging branch with a silver knife. "Is that Enchanted Silver?" Thalia asked.

Already knowing what the following questions would be, Zoë stated, "Lady Artemis was a friend of Kushina Namikaze's. My lady took a shine to her child, it was only natural she would bring gifts." Any further conversation was halted as the girls made their way back to their respective groups. Thalia said goodnight to Luke and Grover as the two were lead to their tents. Afterwards Thalia moving into the one she shared with Annabeth. After tucking the younger girl in, and reading one of the myths from Naruto's book as a bedtime story, the daughter of Zeus settled onto her own bunk, turned Naruto's iPod on and pressed play. As she fell asleep to some song called 'Heathens', she couldn't help but wonder if Naruto would have liked the song.


With a gasp, Naruto awoke. After quickly getting his breath back, the boy was amazed to find that he wasn't injured anymore, however he soon noticed he only saw darkness in all directions.

"So this is what the Underworld is?" Naruto wondered aloud, "Somehow I expected it to be more populated."

"Well this isn't exactly the Greek version," A voice spoke from behind. Naruto quickly turned around to see a boy with a pale complexion, dark hair, and brown eyes. Perhaps the strangest thing was that the older boy was wearing a suit. Continuing, the boy said, "not exactly any version considering your heritage."

"You mean being a son of Artemis?" Naruto asked, figuring there was no point in keep a secret if he was dead.

"No, the Kyubi part. Well him and his mate. Face it Naruto, you're mostly a monster, death isn't as final for you as others." The teen stated

Although happy he might be able to get back to his friends, the other boy's words set Naruto on edge. "How do you even know about that? How do you know my name? I don't recognize you as anything related to Shinto."

"Perhaps I should have introduced myself." The teen said, "I'm Anubis, Egyptian god of…"

"Burials and funeral practices, keeper of the feather of truth." Naruto finished, now recognizing one of the few Egyptian gods the general public knew about. "So what's that go to do with me? And why do you know so much?"

"In short," Anubis began, "your dad feared that someone would find out your secret. Luckily, as I said before, death isn't so permanent for you and this is actually a chance for you to grow stronger."

Almost none of this made sense to Naruto, so the son of Artemis latched onto the one piece of the story he understood. "So what was the deal my father gave you?"

"For knowledge of a ritual that will help me out later in life," the funeral god began, "I'm to teach you how to tap into your inner animal and do something like this." Naruto blinked as the teen glowed, in the space of a second the boy was replaced by a jackal. "Now, we have a lot to learn and not a lot of time." the jackal stated, "so let's get started."


It was official, Thalia was sick of monsters.

After spending the night with the Huntresses, the group were given some rations and pointed in the right direction. It would have been helpful if Artemis' group could have served as an escort to the camp, but apparently that violated some ancient law about interfering with a quest. Needless to say the group were almost immediately set upon by monsters. Learning from their previous mistake, the group didn't stop to fight, instead they just ran. If there was one saving grace it was that the monsters were only hellhounds, granted it was an unreal number of hellhounds but at least it wasn't another group of cyclops.

"Come on!" Grover urged, "Just over the hill and then it's a straight shot to camp!"

That certainly motivated the group. Once she crested the hill, Thalia almost laughed at the sight. It looked just like a regular summer camp, this was where they were supposed to train to be monster slayers? Despite her journey being near its end, Thalia noticed something, no one was awake. The group had run through the night, not have the chance to stop and set up camp due to the pursing monsters. Despite what Luke said back in Virginia, the daughter of Zeus didn't see any deterrent to monsters. If they charged down there the hellhounds would follow, the campers would be slaughtered.

'Well guess it's time to prove the power of the big three.' Thalia thought to herself as she tossed her backpack down. Activating her spear and shield, the girl took a defensive stance as she called out, "Go wake everyone up, I'll hold them off as long as I can."

"Thalia…" Luke began and reached out to her, only for the girl to rip her arm out of his grip.

"Quite wasting time and go!" Thalia ordered, electricity leaping off her spear. Luke decided to follow orders.

Seeing her friends safely make it to the boarder of the camp, Thalia let out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding. Focusing back on her task, the daughter of Zeus mentally prepared herself for the coming fight. How long would it take for the campers to wake up, arm themselves, and charge up the other side of the hill? It didn't matter, Thalia was determined to have as few demigods die today as possible. If she should be the one to fall today, so be it. At least she knew there was one friendly face she'd see in the Underworld.


"Alright, I've got it!" Naruto yelled, happy to finally have the hang of shapeshifting.

"Yep, in record time to. Must be the Greek in you." Anubis commented, and giving a rare joke.

"Thanks." Naruto replied to his new friend before asking, "So just why was it so important I learn this so quickly?"

"Oh, because of this." With a snap of his fingers Anubis opened a portal in the darkness, showing Thalia blocking the jaws of a hellhound with her shield before killing it with her spear, however before she could take a breath another monster tried to flank her, only to meet a similar fate.

"Thalia!" Naruto screamed. "I've got to help her!"

"Just wait a second," Anubis said as he grabbed the boy's shoulder, "you still have a lot to learn. You charge in there right now and you're limited to only one form, not to mention if you die so shortly after your last death that might be it. Can you really risk it?"

Anubis didn't get a response, Naruto had already dived into the portal while the god was talking. Instead of being annoyed, Anubis cracked a rare smile, "Yeah, that's about what I expected." As the god began the trek back to his Underworld, the scales needed to be maintained and Ammit needed to be feed. One thing was for sure, the events of the next few years would certainly be interesting.


Thalia didn't know how much longer she could take this. It seemed that for every hellhound she vanquished, two more rushed to take its place. She wasn't sure how long she'd been fighting, but the fatigue was starting to get to her. To make matters worse the Medusa image on her shield that usually scared away lesser monsters had no effect. It may have also been her imagination, but it seemed the beasts were getting smarter.

No, it definitely WASN'T her imagination, the hellhounds were beginning to strategize. Coupled with Thalia's fatigue, the hellhounds created an opportunity. Coming from opposite directions, one hellhound used its weight to hold down the girl's shield while the other pulled her spear to the side, leaving the daughter of Zeus wide open as a third hellhound charged forward.

'Well Whiskers, looks like you'll be getting that dancer sooner than you thought.' Thalia thought as she prepared to die.

However instead of dying to the hellhound, Thalia was surprised as something leaped over her. Despite leafing through Naruto's book, the girl didn't have a clue what the horse sized, yellow furred fox could be as it clamped it's jaws down on the other monster's throat. The friendly beast then turned back to Thalia, using its tail to spear one of the hellhounds, the other dying to a strange blue flame that was fired from the fox's paws.

Having a moment of peace before the next wave of hellhounds charged, Thalia said, "Thanks, but I had that handled." The fox just rolled its blue eyes, but seemed to smile anyways. Before any further conversation could occur, the next wave of monsters approached. For the next few minutes the girl and fox fought together, a circle of destruction as they felled monster after monster. That wasn't to say the pair were invincible, Thalia still suffered from major fatigue and it seemed the fox was also beginning to slow down. Slowly but surely the two fighters began collecting a number of injuries, small scraps and cuts at first but soon more serious injuries appeared.

"AAAHHHH!" Thalia yelled after a hellhound racked her back with its claws, leaving behind a series of long gashes. Quick Thalia turned to kill the monster, succeeding but losing her balance as well. As she fell to the ground, she caught sight of her new ally, the fox limping as it stuck at another hellhound, only for the monster to dodge and retaliate with a blow to the other animal's head that sent the yellow fox to the ground.

As she hit the earth, Thalia thought aloud, "So, this is the end this time. Hopefully I gave everyone enough time." As she heard the hellhounds approach, the daughter of Zeus closed her eyes and prepared for the end. As such, she didn't see the lightning bolt hit her body, or the moss begin to grow around her, or the pine tree begin to grow next to her, absorbing her body into itself as it grew taller. The hellhounds saw this, and also noticed the scent of the demigod was no longer present, thus they turned their attention to the scent of others, charging towards the camp, only to run into an invisible barrier. Their hunt interrupted, what few remaining monsters fled back into the shadows.

The fox witnessed all of this. Now being ignored, the yellow creature slowly limped up the hill, the barrier doing nothing to it. Painfully, the fox laid itself around the pine tree, encircling it with its body. By now a few campers came charging up the hill, too late to help either Thalia or the fox. They were, however, in time to witness one more oddity. Starting at the tip of its tail, a blue flame appeared on the fox and traveled towards its head, changing the monster's body to stone as it went. In half a minute the once bare hill was now home to a pine tree and a fox statue.


When Thalia first regained consciousness, she didn't want to open her eyes. It felt like she'd finally gotten a decent rest for the first time in a long time, moreover she was also laying against something soft. Eventually the girl had to open her eyes, seeing she was surrounded by a few teens wearing bronze armor. Guessing she didn't die after all, the girls said, "Hello everyone, you missed the party." When none of the teens reacted to her and continued talking to themselves, Thalia spoke louder, "Hey, I know I'm new here, but you all are just being rude." Still not getting a response, Thalia stood up and attempted to hit one of the teens, only for her hand to hit something invisible. Now close enough to see one of the teen's lips moving, Thalia caught the words 'tree' and 'statue'.

Putting everything together, Thalia found her fox friend laying down, and just now waking up. Walking back and taking her seat, Thalia leaned against the fox's body as she began scratching its ears. "Well, we're dead, but not in the Underworld. I guess someone decided to stick us in limbo. Sorry you got dragged into this." The fox didn't seem to mind too much given the soft purr coming from the beast's throat. Giving a slight smile, Thalia reached into her pocket, pulling out Naruto's iPod, "Well, we might be stuck her for an eternity, but at least we have some good music."


"Yes, I'll be state side by tomorrow." Apollo said into his cellphone before hanging up and putting it away and turning his attention back to his date. Even if he'd seen other people, the sun god maintained a good relationship with Bethany, often being the one to answer her calls instead of the usual order. He was sure the woman enjoyed herself every time he visited, which was why they were currently eating at a five star restaurant.

Despite usually leaving their personal lives separate, the woman asked "Everything alright? Those last few minutes sounded pretty heated."

Apollo waved off the question, "Just the usual family drama, my dad is upset with one of my uncles while the other is trying to play peace keeper. Really the only difference is my sister has been a bit more withdrawn than usual."

"Maybe she's pregnant?" Bethany questioned, causing Apollo to laugh.

"I'm sorry," the god quickly apologized once he saw his date's frown, "but if you knew my sister you know that's a very slim, if not impossible, possibility. But enough of my family drama, what was it you wanted to talk to me about? It's a little early for another one of our meet ups, not that I'm complaining."

"You're going to have to wait a little longer than usual I'm afraid, I'm pregnant." the simply stated before taking a sip of her water, "I already have my plans for the child, I just want to know if you are willing to be a part of their life as well."

As whenever one of his lovers shared such new, Apollo froze up slightly. Once over his initial shock, he replied, "I really wish you did say such a thing in such a public place." Not giving the woman the chance to respond, the god hurried to his explanation, "Okay, the long and short of it is that Greek mythology is real, my name isn't Anthony it's Apollo, your child is a demigod, I really wish I could have a direct impact in their life but ancient laws say I can't, and I have to leave you and never speak to you again once the child is born. Any questions."

Bethany stared wide eyed for several moments before facepalming. Instead of accusing Apollo of being crazy, as several of his past lovers had, the woman said, "Ra damn it, there is no way I'm letting Bes find out about this or else he'll start saying I have a sun god fetish." Seeing that she'd actually spoke those words aloud, and now her date was the one giving the questioning look, the woman said, "Looks like you weren't the only one who lied about who they are. My real name is Bast, Egyptian goddess of cats and protection."

After taking a moment to process everything, and then another moment to make sure he wasn't mistaken, Apollo grabbed the nearest waiter and told the man, "I'm going to need something a lot stronger than wine." Once the mortal had left, the god turned back to the goddess, asking, "So are you going to explain how you're in London? And the plan for our child?"

Surprised by how accepting the Greek deity was, Bast asked, "You're still interested."

"Of course, you are simply an amazing woman who I would be devastated to lose." Apollo began, "Plus it helps that when this comes to light my father will be furious. It's been a good few centuries since the last time I rebelled in such a manor, I need to keep him on his toes." Pausing to take a bit of steak, the sun god finished by saying, "Just a note if we want to stay together long term, I unfortunately do have a tendency to stray."

Bast rolled her eyes as she said, "Of course you do, a common trait among you young deities."

"Do you really want me to start making cougar jokes?" Apollo asked.

In response, the goddess gave him a predator smiles as she said, "You're free to say what you want, but I've already captured my prey." Taking a bit of her own dinner, she finished by saying, "As for everything else, we can discuss future arrangements once we have finished desert."

Once more Apollo questioned the fates as to how he meet such an incredible woman.


As the months went by Luke and Annabeth had adjusted relatively well to life at Camp Halfblood. Both were claimed on their first day, Luke staying in the Hermes cabin while Annabeth moved to Athena's. Both made friends, and a few enemies, with the other campers and shared the story of Thalia to all who would listen, Annabeth adding Naruto into the tale. Time flew by and soon it was time for a quest, to exterminate a monster in a neighboring state. Naturally Luke tried to volunteer for the task, only to discover one must be chosen for a quest. Despite praying to practically every Olympian, Luke was not selected. Instead, the quest went to Leroy Jenkins, a talented if not overeager son of Ares.

As Leroy began climbing the hill, he caught sight of the pine tree and the fox statue. Like many he'd heard Thalia's story from Luke and Annabeth, he was also one of the few to see the fox turn to stone (and his brothers gave him crap about sleeping with his sword). Already the tale was gaining notoriety, the tree now referred to as Thalia's while the fox was named a protector. Despite himself, Leroy recalled the tale and how sad he felt that neither made it past that day. Stopping at the base of the tree, the teen dug in his backpack before taking out an apple. Placing the fruit near the statue's head, the boy said, "I'm sorry this is all I can do, but thank you for all that you did, the both of you." As he turned to walk down the hill, the boy didn't see the apple become engulfed in blue flames and fade from existence.

Things spiraled out of control quickly. Tracking down the monster proved easy enough. A three day trek lead Leroy into the middle of Pennsylvania and to the monsters lair, a cave in the surrounding woods. Thinking it wasn't anything too serious, the son of Ares charged into battle, saw the hulking shape of the monster, and decapitated it. In that instant the teen realized three things. One, he'd just cut the head off a hydra. Two, his sword broke in mid-strike, leaving him with only the handle. And three, he really should have brought back up, even if his prophecy said to journey alone.

Usually a son of Ares would stand and fight against anything, but being unarmed against a two headed hydra caused him to start to retreat. As he ran towards the daylight, he could hear the massive serpent slithering behind him. By some miracle the teen was able to escape the cave, the monster right on his heels. However before the beast could strike, several boulders feel from above, crushing the hydra. Leroy just stared, not believing his luck, that was until a fox hopped down from above the cave and walked to the stunned teen.

Leaning down, Leroy gently petted the animal as he asked, "Did you do this?" The fox replied with a look that said 'Do you see anyone else who could?' prompting Leroy to say, "Well thanks, I suppose you should probably get back to your family." When the fox didn't move, Leroy figured it probably didn't have anywhere else to go. An idea came to mind, and he did owe the fox his life, "Well come on then, I'm sure you'll love life at camp."

As he began his trek back to Camp Halfblood, the fox followed close by. When Leroy recounted his tale to the other camps, they came to the conclusion that Leroy had inadvertently given an offering to the stone fox, in return the protector had sent help when the teen needed it most. It soon became an unspoken tradition for campers going out on a quest to leave some food at the statue and return from their quest with a furry companion. Soon the camp had its own skulk running around, causing mischief and taking treats.

The tradition remained unbroken for a few years until Luke, at the age of seventeen, was finally chosen for his own quest, retrieving a golden apple like Hercules had done before. Unlike others he decided to journey alone, feeling that if Hercules did the task alone so could he. Also unlike others Luke chose not to leave an offering at the fox statue, reasoning if the beast couldn't save Thalia any help it offered would be worthless. A month later the teen returned to camp, his quest failed and a scar running from the corner of his eye to his chin. Due to Luke's failure, and the increased hostility and activity of the monsters, the actives director Chiron, the famed centaur and trainer of heroes, placed a stop to quests. That was until the arrival of Percy Jackson years later.


It had been an interesting few weeks for Percy Jackson. The twelve year old discovered that the Greek myths were real, his dad was Poseidon, had his mother kidnapped by Hades, and now had to go on a quest to retrieve Zeus' master bolt before a war among the gods started. As he stood at the top of Halfblood hill along with his best friend Grover, who turned out to be a satyr, and Annabeth Chase, a daughter of Athena who may or may not just be using him to get out of camp, Percy double checked his back pack before asking, "Alright, I've got my pen, money, some ambrosia squares, and some other foods. Is there anything I'm forgetting?"

"Well, you are supposed to leave an offering to the fox statue." Grover informed his friend, "It's not an official part of the quest, more of an informal thing, but we should do it just in case."

"What happened the last time someone didn't leave an offering?" the son of Poseidon asked.

"Luke failed and got his scar." Annabeth stated in her typical matter of fact fashion. Not wanting to see the world destroyed, Percy figured it was better safe than sorry. Digging in his bag, the boy found what he thought was an acceptable offering. Annabeth didn't seem to agree. "Really seaweed brain? A cup of ramen noodles?" she challenged.

"It's all I've got." Percy defended as he put the container next to the statue the food quickly becoming engulfed in blue flames. Percy wore a smirk as he said, "And it seems like the fox likes it just fine."

In response Annabeth rolled her eyes before marching down the hill to where Argus was waiting in the camp van to give the group a ride into the city. Grover offered Percy a smile before following, the son of Poseidon bringing up the rear.


"Okay children, get ready to smile." Aunty Em said as Percy, Annabeth, and Grover posed. Admittedly the lady was a little weird, running a garden emporium in the middle of nowhere, the numerous life sized sculptures didn't help. However, given the fact the group had lost most of their supplies in the bus crash back in New Jersey, and the lady was nice enough to feed them. The least they could do was humor her request for a photo, even if Grover kept obsessing over one of the sculptures he claimed looked just like an uncle of his. Still, something was nagging in the back of Percy's mind. That's when he saw the fox.

Unlike most foxes, this one's coat wasn't red or orange but rather a muted grey, almost silver. This didn't seem to deter the animal at all as it charged out from behind one of Aunty Em's plants, ran to the woman, jumped up her body, and grabbed her head scarf before running away.

"Get back here you pest!" the woman angerly called after the fox, the children and satyr forgotten as she turned her back to the group, who now noticed in place of hair Aunty Em, or more accurately Medusa, had hundreds of snakes. As it was one of the myth's he actually knew, Percy acted. As he ran forward, Percy pulled his special pen out of his pocket, uncapping it to reveal its true form as the sword Riptide. With one strike, Percy decapitated the monster, her body vanishes and the head remaining as a spoil of war.

"See, I told you something was up!" Grover declared as the group gathered around the severed head, careful not to look into its eyes.

"Yes Grover, you were right." Annabeth calmly said before turning to Percy and asked, "So what now?"

Percy opened his mouth to say he didn't know, only for the group to hear barking. Turning around, the trio saw the fox make a reappearance, this time sitting next to a box and the cash registor. An idea forming, Percy said, "I believe now I have a package to send. Afterwards we should hope on a train west."

"And just how are we going to pay for tickets?" Annabeth asked.

In response Percy nodded over to the cash register, "I'm sure Auntie Em doesn't need that money any more, it would be a sham for it to go to waste."

Annabeth would have continued the conversation had Percy not started packing Medusa's head away and started searching for a marker to write the shipping address. Instead the girl turned to Grover, who was busy playing with the fox. Sensing the girl's eyes on him, Grover asked, "Do you know what this means? We just got rescued by a fox, the hard part of the quest is over."

"Or this quest is extra difficult and we needed additional help early on." Annabeth countered.


It turns out Annabeth had been correct. Fighting the Chimera in the Gateway Arch and then falling from said monument into the river below, doing a favor for Ares in exchange for some supplies, a backpack, and a ride west. Needless to say, the quest hadn't gotten any easier after vanquishing Medusa. Currently the trio were sitting in the back of a "Kindness International" semi-truck trailer. The name was very misleading as the three animals, an antelope, a zebra, and an albino lion, had obviously not been taken care of. After cutting the gum from the zebra's mane, and getting told thanks for it, getting a balloon off the antelope's horn, and shifting the food around to the correct animals, the trio of adventurers settled in for the trip.

After a while of talking, Annabeth was the first to go to sleep. Grover and Percy continued talking, guessing what their old classmates were doing or what activities at they would be doing at camp if there wasn't a quest. The conversation continued until Annabeth started mumbling in her sleep. At first the words were unintelligible, but as they increased in volume soon the other occupants of the trailer heard her yelling, "Naruto!"

"Annabeth." Percy cried as he tried to shake his friend awake, "it's just a bad dream, you have to wake up!" Rather than waking up, Annabeth instead clung to the boy, crying in her sleep but slowly calming down. Once settled, Percy turned to Grover and asked, "Who's Naruto?"

"He was friends with Annabeth, Luke and Thalia. He was clearsighted like your mother." Grover quickly explained.

"Was?" Percy asked, his curiosity too great.

"I never meet the guy." Grover confessed. "From what I can figure out him and Thalia were friends when they were children, before she ran away. They meet up by chance a few years later. He's the one who found Annabeth and tried helping them get to Camp Halfblood, but he died fighting against some monsters to the others could get to New York."

"Oh." was all Percy could manage after hearing such a depressing tale, however that brought another question to mind, "There's that name again, Thalia. Who is she?"

"Again, was." Grover began, obviously not liking having to retell the story. "You aren't the first child born to the Big Three since they took the oath. Zeus fell off the wagon in the 80s, got carried away with some TV actress, Thalia was his daughter." Wiping away a few tears, the satyr continued, "I found her and the others in New York, but got turned around, allowed another hoard to find us. I managed to get to the boundary of the camp, but back then there wasn't anything to prevent the monsters from storming the camp. Thalia recognized this, she stood her ground on the hill and held them off. Eventually it became too much for her, but Zeus took pity on her and turned her into a tree, helped to establish the magical boarder."

Not knowing exactly what to say, Percy eventually settled on, "She sounds brave."

"She was." Grover agreed. "Get some sleep Percy, the quest isn't over yet and the Underworld will make everything else we've done look easy."


After a few hours of rest the truck finally stopped. Admittedly, it felt good setting the animals free, especially since Grover's blessing would ensure they got somewhere safe. Still, for some reason the silver fox had decided to stick around, Annabeth explained it was part of the tradition to bring the fox back to camp once the quest was over.

"So let's review," Percy said as the group walked along the street where the truck stopped last, Las Vegas, "We're in Las Vegas and our destination is Los Angeles, a four and half hour drive. After everything we've been through, I think we can check into a hotel and have a day of rest."

"As much as I don't want to agree with the seaweed brain, I think Percy is right." Annabeth stated, "We're going up against Hades, it would be wise to be well rested."

Grover was about to ask which hotel they should stay at when the fox jumped out of his backpack and started running away. A moment passed where the trio stared at each other unsure what to do before they collectively started chasing after the animal. Twisting through the crowd the trio eventually found their fox, being held by a dark haired woman wearing a silver shirt. Slowing down, Percy continued forward, hoping he didn't sound too crazy as he said, "Hi miss, thanks for grabbing our fox." When he heard his friends gasp behind him, the boy raised a questioning eyebrow.

"Percy, that's Artemis." Annabeth quickly said, hoping no one was getting turned into a jackalope.

"Relax Annabeth Chase, no one will be punished today. I'm afraid Athena would be rather upset with me if I were to harm one of her children." The moon goddess said before turning her attention to Percy, "As for you, as you're the quest leader I'm forbidden to directly interfere with you, for the time being."

Swallowing the lump in his throat, Percy calmly and respectfully said, "Thank you for the information. Now can we please have the fox back, we need to look after him for the remainder of the quest and were about to check into a hotel."

"She," Artemis corrected the boy on the fox's gender, "and please tell me you children weren't about to check into this hotel, it's the Land of the Lotus eaters."

"The what now?" Percy questioned.

"Immortals who trick people into leaving behind their lives and being trapped by pleaser for an eternity." Annabeth quickly lectured her friend before turning to Artemis and apologizing, "I'm sorry Lady Artemis, he's still new to everything."

"Apology accepted." The goddess said with a hint of a smile. "Now how about a trade? You allow me to take this little girl back to Camp Halfblood early, yes I know about your new tradition, and I'll arrange a room for you three for the next three days."

"Isn't that going against the ancient laws?" Grover asked, thankful for the help but not wanting to be punished by the fates.

"It would be much like what my brother did in securing you a ride here." Artemis explained, "You three are doing me a favor and I am rewarding you."

"Then by all means." Percy spoke for the group, "we accept your offer."

"Great." Artemis said. With a snap of her fingers a silver business card appeared. Handing it to Percy, she said, "Show this to the front desk at Circus Circus and you three should have no trouble. Be sure to relax and have some fun. Oh and Annabeth," the three turned to hear the goddess' final words, "don't forget I'm always looking for new talent." Before the others could question what she meant, Artemis had already disappeared in the crowd.

After a few moments of walking to the hotel in silence, Percy asked, "Is it just me, or did she seem a little weird?"

"She certainly acted different from the last time I saw her." Annabeth commented.

"Maybe she just really likes foxes?" Grover supplied, "Although I though her sacred animal was a stag."

Ultimately the trio decided it was just a mystery for another day.


Hades regarded the three living beings that had stepped into his throne room. "Well, you are certainly early. I wasn't expecting you for another," the god paused to check a calendar, "two days." Seeing the glare Percy was giving him, Hades stated, "And now I'm guessing you'll be demanding that I release your mother and return the Master Bolt."

"How did you…" Percy began, only for Hades to interrupt.

"Please, you heroes are all so predictable. Now your mother," the rule of the Underworld summoned a green glowing ball, the prison of Sally Jackson. Before either the demigods or satyr could move, Hades threw the ball into the ceiling, the prison phasing through and not coming back down, "is free. She'll wake up in an area hospital as a Jane Doe who suddenly recovered her memories. As for my brother's weapon, I never had it."

"Then why capture Percy's mom?" Annabeth demanded.

"To get your attention. Do you honestly believe Zeus' bolt was the only thing stolen? My Helm of Darkness has been missing just as long, but if I bring it up to any of my siblings they believe I'm scheming for something." Release a great sigh, the god sank into his throne. Looking over the adventurers, he continued, "Despite what you believe I'm not looking for conflict. Yes I'll fight back if attacked first, but I have enough problems without starting a war within my family. I believe Zeus is right that a demigod stole his bolt, but they probably got help from a god after the fact." Hades then turned his full attention to Percy and asked, "Please do me a favor and open your backpack."

Although confused by the request, Percy had learned during the quest that you don't refuse a god's order. Shockingly, once the backpack was opened the Master Bolt was revealed.

"But how?" Annabeth questioned, "we got this from Ares."

"My nephew was always easy to manipulate, I much prefer dealing with Mars over him." Hades muttered to himself, although the children heard it. "Now then, it's highly probable that Ares still has my helm. Once you leave he'll be angry that I didn't smite you, at that point challenge him to a duel for my helm and your lives."

"You're just letting us leave?" Grover asked, "Not that I don't mind or anything."

"Yes, the myths paint me out to be such a megalomaniac, oppressed with gaining power and never letting heroes escape, well the ones remembered anyway. Sadly it's often the stories forgotten that hold the most truth to a person." The god then stood up and snapped his fingers, causing a new passage way to appear. "Besides how else will you three retrieve my helm if I don't let you go back to the surface, yes you won't be needing those pearls so save them for some other time." Before the group began their climb, Hades turned to Annabeth and asked, "You had something to request of me."

After thinking of what to say, Annabeth began, "I had a friend who died a few years ago…"

"And you wish to know their fate." Hades finished. "Yes if I'm correct you're asking about the Namikaze boy. Hold on." With a snap of his fingers a list appeared in the gods hands. After several minutes of silence, Hades said, "Interesting, it appears the boy is not in the system."

"What does that mean?" Percy asked.

"One of several things." Hades answered. "The first being he is still waiting to be judged, unlikely considering how many request Dionysus forwarded to me to fast track the boy. The second is knowledge you three are not meant to hear. Finally, and most likely is that he's in service to some minor god in exchange for being kept alive."

A new hope in Annabeth's eyes, the girl bowed to Hades and said a quick thank you before starting her climb to the surface. Percy and Grover quickly following her example. Hades may have been kinder than expected, but no one want to spend time in the Underworld for longer than they have to.

"One more thing," Hades called after the group, "I'll be sending Alecto to observe and ensure my helm's return. Although I suppose you're more familiar with her as Mrs. Dodds." While the second name meant nothing to Annabeth, it sent a shiver down Percy's and Grover's spine.


Admittedly the battle against Ares was a challenge and it was more so luck that Percy tricked the god into coming into the ocean, allowing the son of Poseidon to re-energize and land a blow on the god of war. With the duel won the helm was returned to Hades, via Mrs. Dodds, even if Ares supposedly cursed Riptide to fail Percy in the future. More good news followed, the mortals who witnessed the fight having the mist make things appear as if Percy was fighting back against his abductor. Soon enough he and his friends were reunited with Sally who recognized her son on tv. The four soon had arrangements made to be flown back to New York.

Once back in the city, the four were further surprised to learn they were all requested to come to Olympus to explain the events of the past few weeks. Thankfully no one was smited, although Ares was severely punished. While Zeus was extremely happy to have his bolt back, he didn't put much stock into the theory that a demigod alone was behind the thefts and some greater threat was still out there. Still, at least the current problem was resolved and everyone was somewhat happy. Before the group could leave, Poseidon had personally given Sally a box that could take care of a "smelly problem", if she so wished to. Percy had an idea of what was in the box, and what problem his father was referring to, but truthfully that was the last thing on his mind. Right now he just wanted to get back to camp.


From her seat Thalia watched the celebration of Percy's return. Thinking aloud, Thalia said, "Seems like little Annabeth was able to make some good friends." In response, her fox just huffed. "Oh what, you think she's going to fall for him?" the daughter of Zeus teased, her companion remaining silent.

Throughout the night she could see the faint glow of a bonfire as the celebration continued. Eventually the party died down, but later in the night Luke appeared on her hill, followed by Percy. "Just what is going on?" Thalia wondered, not able to see what Luke was saying but recognizing Percy's shocked reaction. She then watched as Luke drew his sword, the color of the blade indicating it wasn't completely Celestial Bronze, before summoning a large scorpion. He pointed his blade at Percy and the monster attacked, stinging the boy before being slain by Riptide. Despite being unable to help, Thalia cried out, "We have to do something!" Just as Luke ran away.

In response, the yellow fox stood on all fours before releasing a loud series of barks. Unknown to Thalia, the resident skulk of the camp soon started barking as well, waking Chiron and leading the centaur to Thalia's hill, where he saw the unconscious Percy. Taking quick action, the trainer grabbed the boy and took him to the Big House to be healed. It would be an entire day before the son of Poseidon awoke and revealed Luke's betrayal to the camp, and by then the traitor was dust in the wind.

By the time Percy made a full recovery, the summer was almost over. The boy said a quick but emotional goodbye to Grover, the satyr having gotten a searchers license and was now free to try and find the missing god Pan, his life's goal. As the camp activities began to wind down, the boy decided to go back to New York and live with his mom, she'd recently purchased a new apartment by selling a rather unique art sculpture. Annabeth had also decided to go home next week as well. After seeing how much love was between Sally and Percy she was willing to give living with her dad and step family another chance.

While Percy waved goodbye to his friend as she was picked up by her father, he was unaware another two sets of eyes watched the girl being driven away. "I really hope this works out." Thalia commented, "I never really thought Mr. Chase was as messed up as my mom, he just needed a little time to figure everything out."


With only the year rounders staying after Summer, Camp Halfblood grew quiet. For many months Thalia and the fox enjoyed the peacefulness, that was until one night in late April the following year.

"Look at the stars, look how they shine for you…" Thalia sang along to the song that came up on shuffle, a little slow for her taste but a good tune none the less. The fox certainly wasn't complaining about it, or the girl's singing. That was until he started barking, his hackles raised. Shocked at her friend's behavior, Thalia asked, "What's gotten into you?"

She got her answer when she saw Luke walking up the hill, carrying a sledge hammer. As always the daughter of Zeus couldn't hear what the boy said as he drew his sword and poured something along the blade. She felt a sharp pain his her stomach as her one time friend stabbed her tree. As she gasped for breath, she saw Luke beginning to swing the sledgehammer around, hitting something unseen, but with each blow landed the fox would flinch and Thalia heard bones snapping. Once Luke deemed his work satisfactory, the son of Hermes left. Thalia began to slowly stroke the whimpering fox's head.

"Don't worry, I'm sure someone will help soon." Thalia didn't even believe her own words.


As he ran to Thalia's tree, Percy began to wonder if he'd ever have a normal Summer again. After leaving a few days early via the Gray Sister's taxi, the son of Poseidon was shocked to see Thalia's tree dying and the fox statue all but destroyed. More shocking was that a pair of mechanical bulls, Annabeth called them Colchis Bulls, were freely moving in and out of the camp's boarder as they fought a group of campers lead by Clarisse La Rue, a daughter of Ares. Thankfully the monsters were defeated with a little help from Tyson, Percy's friend from school who turned out to be an orphaned cyclops, who Poseidon shortly claimed.

Although it was nice to have another friend at camp, the Summer just got worse. Apparently Thalia's tree had been poisoned by an unknown party, and since it happened on his watch Chiron was let go, being replaced by Tantalus, who insisted nothing was wrong despite the increased monster attacks and injured campers. As if that wasn't enough Percy kept having dreams of his friend Grover in trouble, but also something that might heal the tree. It was only after Percy and Annabeth caused a near riot in the dining pavilion that Tantalus finally agreed to assign a quest, however he gave it to Clarisse instead of Percy or Annabeth.

Really although Percy was slightly disappointed, the boy would have been alright with Clarisse having the quest. Despite their differences, the son of Poseidon recognized that the girl was strong and a great fighter. The one time he expressed some hesitation at not even being able to help with the quest, many started accusing him of being like the previous children of the Big Three, a glory hound, however in reality all Percy wanted was his friend safe and the camp saved. Truthfully he would have stayed at Camp Halfblood and help to defend against future monster attacks, had he not received a late night visit from Hermes, the messenger god, who implied the success of the quest rested on whether Percy, Annabeth, and Tyson went to the Sea of Monsters or not.

From there events spiraled out of control, as they tend to do in the life of a demigod. A confrontation with Luke on board his ship lead to the demigods and cyclops running into a hydra, only to be saved by Clarisse with her Confederate ghost ship. Reluctantly the daughter of Ares allowed the trio on board, but only after making them prisoners. From there it was a short trip to the Sea of Monsters, or as mortals knew it the Bermuda Triangle. After an ill-advised skirmish with Scylla and Charybdis, the ship exploded and the party was separated.

Somehow Percy and Annabeth stayed together as they drifted to C.C.'s spa and resort, which turned out to be run by the ancient sorceress Circe. Not surprisingly Percy was turned into an animal, a guinea pig to be more specific, and Annabeth received a make over. After returning Percy to the proper species, and inadvertently setting the thought dead pirate Blackbeard free on the island as well, the two demigods managed to steal the man's ship and sail further into the Sea of Monsters.

After a misadventure while passing the Siren's Island, the pair eventually found Grover, unfortunately the satyr was being held captive by the ancient cyclops Polyphemus, who thought Grover was a woman and intended to make him a bride. The cyclops also had the Golden Fleece, an ancient magical object that could cure any illness, which could be used to cure the poisoned tree at camp. Percy and Annabeth were able to formulate a plan, only to have to improvise once Clarisse made a reappearance, outed Grover's real gender, and Polyphemus decided to marry her instead. Needless to say, the new plan didn't work as well and even though they recovered the Golden Fleece, they were corned by Polyphemus and his man eating sheep. Thankfully they were saved by Tyson, who'd survived the explosion that now seemed so long ago, and the group were able to flee back to their commandeered ship and make it back to Miami.

Once back in the United States, Clarisse was sent ahead back to Camp Halfblood to ensure the quest as successful. Meanwhile the rest of the adventures were captured by Luke's minions. One last battle, and a sneaky Iris message to clear Chiron's name and firmly establish that Luke poisoned Thalia's tree and smashed the fox statue. Angered, Luke lashed out at Percy, leading to a sword fight (during which Percy was able to free an all black Pegasus from Luke named Blackjack who now considered himself Percy's personal steed) that almost led to the latter's death, if it were not for the intervention of Chiron and the Party Ponies, a group of semi-civilized centaurs, who defeated much of Luke's monsters and rescued the demigods, satyr, and cyclops. After the reunion it was a quick trip back to Camp Halfblood were Clarisse was celebrated and Chiron given his job back by Dionysus.

The celebration seemed to be the last thing on anyone's mind as practically the entire camp's population went racing to Thalia's tree, Chiron making the comment the fleece worked a little too well. Once her got closer, Percy saw a slightly older girl with short black hair wearing a leather jacket was nestled among the broken stone and tree roots. As the girl began to stir, Percy called to Grover, who along with Annabeth looked as if he'd seen a ghost, to help him out. Slowly the two pulled the girl from the tree and stood her up, by now she'd regained consciousness and began speaking, "I just had the weirdest dream."

Seeing no one else was going to speak as they walked away from the tree, Percy asked, "Who are you?"

The girl turned to look at Percy, revealing electric blue eyes as she replied, "Thalia Grace, daughter of Zeus."

That, however, was not the night's last surprise. Once the three were clear of the statue remains, the stones began to move towards the tree. Jaws dropped as the stones placed themselves back together, reforming the statue. Once back in the proper shape, a series of blue flames rejoined the pieces into one solid statue. Once the flames fizzled out, those assembled were even more stunned when a yellow haze appeared above the statue. Slowly the haze took shape and it appeared as if a see through fox was pulling its body from the stone. Once the tip of its tail was free, the fox's body became solid. While looking identical to the fox that'd tried to save Thalia years ago, this one had two differences, it was slightly bigger and had two tails.

Calmly the residents of Camp Halfblood and the fox regarded one another, until a loud bark caught everyone's attention. The campers feared a hellhound was about to attack, only to become more scared as a massive, red, nine tailed fox appeared out of the forest, the trees bending out of the monster's path. The bark seemed to be an order to the yellow fox as the smaller creature slowly walked to the other one. A silent moment passed before the larger fox seemed to accept the other one, the pair walking back into the forest and disappearing among the trees.

Not believing what he'd just seen, Percy asked, "Annabeth, just what was that?"

After a silent minute, the girl finally answered, "Honestly, I don't know seaweed brain."

For once, even the daughter of Athena was stumped.


Wow, 25 pages. I think that makes up for my cliffhanger, short update, and long wait, don't you?

In all seriousness this chapter did jump around a lot, but there really isn't much change to the plot of the Percy Jackson series until Titan's Curse so I figured I'd just give a quick overview of how Naruto's presence has begun to change things. This is the last of what I've deemed the "prologue" chapters, and now we can get into the real meat of the story in the next update (assuming it doesn't take me another year and a half to get to writing it).

So with those events fresh, there are a few more questions for this story, such as…

How will Thalia readjust to life outside of her tree?

What are Apollo and Bast planning?

What will Artemis do once she finds out her son is alive?

These questions and more will be answered in the coming chapters of Kitsune of the Moon!

But for now, I'm acw28 saying, "until next update."