Naruto Uzumaki, Son of Apollo: The Lightning Thief

Written By: Rave Rose of Twilight

Warning: I don't own Naruto or PJO. If I did, do you honestly think I'd be writing Fanfiction?

Author's Note: Just because I am mentioning other Naruto characters in the fiction does not mean that they will appear in every chapter or be main characters. They only served the purpose of showing that other Naruto characters might be there, but never or rarely mentioned.

Chapter Four: A Double Claiming: Welcome to the Families

After their little scuffle with Clarisse and her thugs, Naruto, Percy, and Annabeth were making their way to the different areas in camp, showing Percy around so he wouldn't get lost. "So...who was that girl," Percy finally asked.

"Clarisse La Rue, daughter of Ares, God of War," Annabeth declared. "Just as a warning, you should probably stay away from them. They're nothing but bullies who love to fight and pick on new demigods."

"I'll take your word," Percy whispered as he felt himself shrink slightly under her gaze. "And who's daughter are you?"

Annabeth rolled her eyes and was about to speak until Naruto did it for her. "She's a daughter of Athena, Goddess of Wisdom and Battle Strategy. A Wise Girl, you could say," Naruto teased her, causing her cheeks to glow crimson. Whether that was from embarrassment or anger was unclear, though Percy was willing to bet it was a little bit of both. Naruto had a habit of irritating people whether he knew it or not.

"Would you stop calling me that," she almost shouted at him. "That isn't an endearing term to use for a daughter of Athena, you know."

"But it kinda is," Naruto replied. "I mean, your brothers and sisters are super smart and nobody can win a battle without a good strategy. They turn to the Wise Ones for advice or battle preparations."

She blushed a deep crimson and turned to Percy. "How do you stand being his friend," she asked him.

Percy just shrugged. "I barely know myself," he informed her. "He just started hanging out with me and Grover when we were kids and we've been friends ever since."

"Come on, Perce," Naruto groaned. "If you're going to talk about me to your new girlfriend, at least wait until I'm not here anymore."

"G...girlfriend," Percy and Annabeth shouted incredulously.

Naruto simply waved them off. "Don't worry about me bumming out your little date. Kurama and I will just head to Hephaestus' Cabin and chat with Tenten for a bit."

"Now who's the one with a girlfriend," Percy quipped.

"She's not my girlfriend," he informed calmly. "Besides, she's actually kinda cool. She's into weapons and making weapons and armor. Even if I were so inclined, I'm sure she already likes someone else here at camp. It would never work out."

Annabeth looked at him curiously. "Now who's the Wise Boy," she said softly in a joking manner.

Naruto laughed heartily. "Me? Wise? You must be smoking something strong, Anna," Naruto stated with a soft sigh. "Nah. I'm just more observative than you are. Comes from people watching. You begin to see things most people take for granted. Like a look of longing or a brush of ones hand against another person's hand as something other than a passing glance or accidental contact. We're only ever going to be friends."

Percy and Annabeth looked at Naruto oddly. "That has got to be one of the single smartest and saddest things I've ever heard come from him," Annabeth whispered to Percy, who nodded in agreement.

"Don't worry," Percy whispered in return. "He'll eventually say something stupid that will make you retract that statement. He always does."

"Now, I'll be leaving you two lovebirds to confess your undying love for one another while simultaneously discussing the myth of 'Love at First Sight'," Naruto said as he proceeded to jog to Hephaestus' Cabin.

"And now I just want to hurt him," Annabeth declared.

"See. Just when you think he says something smart, he always counters that by saying something incredibly stupid afterwards," Percy stated as sighed to himself.

"Yeah," Annabeth stated. "I just wish he would stick with one personality. Preferably the smart personality over his stupid one. Maybe then he'd be able to realize that several girls in the camp are already attracted to him."

Percy just chuckled. "Yeah, but it's actually kinda funny watching all of these girls try to get Naruto's attention when he's completely oblivious to it all."

Annabeth giggled with a nod as the pair watched Naruto dart off toward Hephaestus' Cabin with Kurama following closely behind. For something so small and young, Kurama could move like the four winds when he wanted to.

Meanwhile, Naruto had made good time and was currently approaching Hephaestus' bright bronze cabin when the door opened, revealing Tenten in her smithing uniform, telling him she was tending the forges today provided something got damaged during training.

"Hey, Tenten," the blond shouted with an exagerated wave of his hand. "Can I ask you to help me out with something?"

Tenten raised an eyebrow, but nodded in agreement all the same. "Sure," she said calmly. "What did you want?"

Naruto dug into his backpack that he carried simply as a habit and pulled out the two hellhound leather skins. "I was wondering...if you could make me some armor out of hellhound hide. Nothing fancy. Just some standard leather armor with bronze plates for added protection."

Tenten looked at the leather excitedly before snatching it out of his hands and examining them. "These are incredible," she exclaimed in awe before looking back up to her friend. "But why? I mean, most people keep their trophies in a case. Never asked for them to be made into a weapon or armor before."

"Well, I want to be able to show off my trophies and what better way than by wearing or wielding them in battle or on quests," Naruto asked, earning a nod from Tenten. "Besides that, I remember seeing one of those Hellhounds kinda appear from the shadows in that abandoned warehouse and I thought some of the properties of the monster the trophy came from could possibly pass on to anything made by them. Like a sword made with a gorgon's eyes would turn anything it came into contact with into stone or something."

Tenten's eyes widened after hearing his explanation and she soon agreed with him. She too was now curious about whether or not weapons and armor made from trophies would carry any special properties from the monsters they came from. "I'm definitely going to have to ask Charlie for help on this one since he's actually worked with leather more than I have, but I don't see why we can't make you a full set of leather armor from this Hellhound leather," she admitted quickly enough. "But why leather armor instead of the usual bronze armor?"

"With leather armor, you tend to have a greater range of motion than when you're wearing any kind of metal armor," Naruto interjected. "Not to mention you'd have a slight speed advantage because leather weighs less than the bronze armor you actively use. In exchange for these two bonuses, it's less durable than bronze armor and less likely to deflect a blow from a sword or an arrow. Thus my request to add bronze plates to it. Gives it slightly more durability and will make it just a bit harder to draw blood than ordinary leather armor would in case I get in a scrap."

Tenten smiled and nodded. For someone who hadn't been claimed yet, he sure knew a good bit about different kinds of armor. Maybe he was her brother. A son of Hephaestus. But that didn't seem to fit his personality nor his body type very well. "Is there anything else you want me to forge into something?"

Naruto paused in thought before shaking his head. "Not right now. Maybe when I get the chance to collect more trophies," he told her, though he was somewhat tempted to ask her to forge the bronze ring from the Minotaur into a rapier, a pair of bracers that would increase his strength, or something like that. Then he'd have a Robin Hood thing going for him. He refused to wear tights, though.

Screw that noise! Tights weren't cool unless you were taking gymnastics classes with a group consisting mostly of beautiful women and even then, they didn't do the male figure justice like it did with women.

Regardless, he decided to keep his trophies until he could figure out something to forge them into. This would no doubt be an experience for both Tenten and himself for future projects. The two of them made one hell of a team. "So do you know whose team your playing on for the Capture the Flag game coming up?"

"Yeah," Naruto said. "The team that doesn't have Clarisse on it." Tenten gave off a nervous laugh.

"Clarisse managed to work out a deal with Charlie for help with capturing the flag," Tenten said. "Looks like we'll be enemies during the Capture the Flag game."

"Not enemies," Naruto said. "Just friends temporarily on opposite sides of a mission. Enemies means we were never friends to begin with."

Tenten got a good laugh out of that before looking back to her friend and giving him a grateful smile. "I'm glad we're friends, Naruto," she said warmly. Something Naruto returned in earnest.

"So am I, Tenten," he gently called.

"I'll try and get this new leather armor to you before the game," she told him, finally remembering why he came all this way to visit with her for.

"I appreciate it," Naruto replied before looking up at the sky to note the sun's position. "Looks like it's almost dinner time. I guess this is where I take off to join Hermes' cabin."

"Yeah," Tenten said somewhat sadly. She enjoyed talking with Naruto. He was just as good a listener as he was a talker.

And boy could he talk for long periods of time and on a wide variety of subjects.

She knew a little about him, but not as much as she would like. Naruto was...interesting. He's got a pet fox whose ancestor was fated to never be captured. He was a fairly powerful demigod whose specialty seemed, from what she'd seen so far, to rest in Archery. He also admitted to liking the sleek design of weapons slightly more modern than the Greek weapons they used. From what she gleaned from him during their current conversation, he seemed to prefer freedom to move instead of wearing the bronze armor the other demigods wore.

Tenten wished she knew who his father was as well as what his favorite kind of food to eat was. What were his hobbies? What kinds of things did he like and dislike? What did he look for in a potential girlfriend? Not that she wanted to be his girlfriend, of course. She was usually too busy to think about dating between training and her work on the forge. Sure. She wouldn't be the first to admit that she thought Naruto was incredibly handsome, demigod or not.

As he walked away, she walked back into the house to talk with her brother Charlie about the difficult challenge Naruto had placed before them. As sons and daughter of Hephaestus, they were always waiting for the next challenge and forging armor and weapons from trophies was one such challenge. The reason being...nobody had ever thought to do something similar. Instead, they simply put their trophies on a shelf as a way to remember their conquests and forget about them as time moved on.

But to wear your trophies into battle?! That would be sure to get you noticed by your allies and enemies alike.

That evening, Naruto had joined Hermes' cabin and Percy at the table where they were served a wonderful dinner consisting of all kinds of foods. Naruto's plate was stacked with brisket, a small mixed fruit salad, and some artisian bread and cheese. In the goblet, which he had been informed that it was enchanted by the Gods and Goddesses to fill with whatever their hearts desired with the exception of alcohol and would never run dry, he requested a nice, soothing goblet of green tea mixed with freshly squeezed orange juice. His mother had somehow managed to get him to drink a cup of tea and he'd become addicted with trying different kinds of tea. His favorite so far was green tea with orange, though he also liked the occasional Arnold Palmer, a mix of orange pekoe tea and lemonade.

Before they began their feast, Chiron had told them about how and why they dedicate a small portion of their meals to their divine parents or the God or Goddess whose cabin you were staying in. As the lines formed, Naruto was standing just behind Percy, who had just put out a fair portion of his meal. As soon as he stood up to the hearth, many things began to float around in his mind. He owed a lot to a lot of the Gods and Goddesses for their assistance throughout his journey to Camp Half Blood. His first offering was to Hestia for the shelter, warmth, and the love of his dear mother and the kindness of his friends over the years. His next offering went to Artemis. Without her watching over him, he would have likely died at the maws of those two hellhounds and have been unable to save Percy and Grover's lives. His next offering went to Hecate because it was Kurenai who helped him reach Camp Half Blood in the first place.

The next one went to Hephaestus because of his fine craftsmanship of the bow he carried into battle and the friendship of his daughter, Tenten. The offering following that went to Hermes for sheltering him in his cabin until he got sorted and for giving him the ability to run fast enough to make it in time to save Percy and Grover. As for the last offering, he decided to give it to Percy's father and his own father. He owed Percy a lot. The two got into a lot of trouble together and he doubted any of their adventures would have been half as fun without Percy at his side. Ordinarily, he wouldn't offer anything to his father simply out of spite for leaving him and his mother alone. However, there were times on his journey that he swore he could feel his father's divine presence watching over him and he did provide the two of them with the funds needed to keep themselves alive and comfortable for the most part.

As he put that last bit of food into the hearth, he could have sworn he smelled something so amazingly delicious, he had to resist not jumping into the hearth himself. It smelled oddly enough of his mother's homemade cooking. A fresh bowl of miso ramen with a fried egg on top and some other ingredients she kept hidden from him. That smell alone made him miss his mother even more than he thought possible. She was an amazing cook, but her only really good meal was something he got from her: her love of ramen. When she tried to cook meatloaf, it seemed to spring to life and try to attack them before the two of them beat it to death with their steel chairs followed by a burning of the 'corpse' as well as a few prayers. However, in a strange coincidence, when she tried making meatloaf ramen, it turned out spectacular. Worthy of a five star restaurant.

He shook his head before going back to his table spot beside Percy. The two quickly dug into the feast as though it were only a temporary reprieve from the constant training.

Before the two could go for the first bite, Chiron stood up from his seat and addressed the Camp. "As all of you no doubt know, tomorrow is our weekly Capture the Flag game," he announced. "The two teams will be led by Clarisse and Annabeth. So train harder than you normally would because you will all need that strength for the battle tomorrow evening. And try to get a good night's sleep. That will be all."

With Chiron's last words said, the entire camp dug into their meals with fervor while almost simultaneously talking with one another. Naruto and Percy weren't very comfortable talking with the members of Hermes' cabin simply because they didn't know them very well and the two of them rarely talked to one another just because there wasn't that much to find out about one another that the other didn't already know. That and there was little doubt that Percy was missing his mother and Naruto wasn't one to pour salt on his wounds, especially so if Percy kept picking at the wound before it could scab over and heal properly.

The following morning, Hermes' Cabin had Sword and Shield Training with Clarisse and her siblings. Percy felt the weight lift off of his shoulders when he was paired up with Luke. He also felt like his best friend was going to die because Naruto was the one Clarisse chose to spar with her.

Naruto wore a simple set of bronze armor and walked over to the weapons rack, picking up a sword that felt fairly well-balanced and a sturdy shield before settling into a stance that had his shield in front of his chest and his sword poised to deliver a thrust at a moment's notice.

Clarisse's chocolate brown eyes narrowed as she studied his stance. It was fairly solid and would allow him to counter almost any attack with ease. Naturally, he was used to fighting as an archer would. Keep the enemy away and take your shots when able so he was probably going to try to parry her attacks while taking shots at any openings he could find. However, she could tell he wasn't used to the weight that came with a sword and shield, but he made up for it by instinctively distributing the weight in a way that would allow him a greater amount of balance while offering the greatest amount of protection.

In all honesty, she was impressed with the instincts this New Blood displayed, but she would never admit it out loud. Naruto seemed to naturally hold himself as a warrior would. Maybe he was another brother of hers and Ares simply hadn't claimed him yet, but then again...none of her kin, if she dared call them that, weren't that good with a bow.

Without warning, Clarisse charged toward Naruto, her sword ready for a downward slash only for it to be blocked by Naruto's sword followed by a shield bash. She protected herself from the heavy impact by using her own shield to absorb the blow, but she still felt herself get knocked back a bit. She did find out one more piece of information about him. He was surprisingly strong. Now she was curious as to who his godly parent could be.

She had to shake herself from her internal dialogue when she noticed Naruto charge her leading with his shield. He thrust his shield at her, but she was ready and thrust her own shield at his, causing no disrupted movement. However, Naruto followed through with knocking her shield away and thrusting his xiphos toward her stomach. She quickly parried with her sword and jumped back slightly to avoid any more surprise strikes.

She could feel sweat begin to trickle down her brow and she saw that Naruto was in a similar state. They charged one another and their swords clashed in a shower of sparks. The more they clashed blades, the more attention they attracted. Throughout the entire battle, Naruto and Clarisse's eyes never left the eyes of their opponent.

Naruto was grinning and Clarisse couldn't help but to grin as well. The two were thoroughly enjoying this sparring match, challenging one another and matching the other blow for blow.

Clarisse let out a mighty laugh. "You're pretty strong, New Blood," she barked as she delivered a thrust to his shield arm.

Naruto laughed in response. "And you're not bad either, War Girl," Naruto said as he used his shield to parry another sword strike.

Naruto and Clarisse jumped away from the clash before charging one another for a final confrontation. In the middle of the arena, the two met and flew past one another. The audience waited with baited breath to see who drew first blood. As the two competitors turned to look at one another, everyone was surprised when they spotted two similar bleeding cuts on both Naruto's and Clarisse's sword arms.

The two walked up to one another before bumping fists with one another. "That was probably the best spar I've had since I got to Camp," Clarisse stated.

"Yep," he replied. "Definitely the best scrap I've been in since I fought those Hellhounds on my way to Camp. I'd like to spar with you more often, if you're cool with that."

Clarisse laughed. "Of course I'd love to spar with you again, but I want to find out who your godly parent is first. That way, we can both go at it with everything we've got. After all, as the best swordswoman in camp, I have to keep my skills sharp by fighting strong opponents."

"Were you in the same fight as I was," Naruto asked with a smirk. "I believe I was taking charge for the majority of the match, which makes me the best swordsman."

Clarisse stepped forward, butting heads with Naruto and glaring at him eye to eye. "Oh yeah?!"

Naruto shoved his forehead against hers in retaliation while glaring into her eyes. "Yeah! You wanna go again, War Girl?"

"You bet, New Blood," Clarisse growled.

Those around the pair could have sworn they saw sparks flying between their eyes as they came close to drawing their swords again until a noise came over the loud speakers, signifying that it was ten o'clock.

"Looks like you got lucky, War Girl," Naruto challenged. "I've got Archery next, but we'll settle this during the Capture the Flag game tonight."

"You bet your ass we will," Clarisse threw back before the two of them spun around and walked away toward their individual training sessions.

"She must either really hate him or Clarisse has a crush on him," Luke said once both parties were out of earshot. "I've never seen her fight like that against a New Blood before."

"Really," Percy asked, getting a nod from Luke.

"Yeah. He's got some serious skill with the xiphos," Luke remarked. "He's got to be a son of Ares or Hephaestus. No way does any other half blood have that kind of skill come to him so naturally with either a sword or a bow."

The rest of the day passed by as normal as any other. Naruto tried to help Percy with his archery, but the only improvement was that his arrows no longer flew into the dryads' forest, causing them to spurt out curses in ancient Greek. Instead, they tended to fall a few yards in either direction of the intended target. Their Winged Horseback Riding class went superb for Naruto, who was getting used to the way the horse moved as it flew and even allowed him to practice his archery while on horseback. Those results were mixed. More often than not, his arrows hit the target, but none of them came close to a bullseye.

During the Monster Assault Techniques training with Hermes' Cabin, the pair of them had learned some useful techniques that involved disarming your opponent. Naruto was finding it harder to perform, but he would get it every third or fourth try. Percy, however, had used it successfully on the first time against Luke, but every other time ended in failure.

Next up was Free Period and Naruto opted to join Hephaestus' Cabin and made a pair of kopis that were strapped to his hip with the help of Charlie and Tenten. The knives were fairly heavy, but were designed mostly for cutting and thrusting, so they worked well enough. Besides, he'd only need them if someone or something got too close for comfort. However, he would need to train in using them both at the same time if he was going to use them effectively.

Later that afternoon, the time came. The Capture the Flag tournament was right now and Tenten and Charlie had just delivered his Hellhound Leather Armor at the last minute before they had to rejoin their team. As Naruto slipped on the pants and breastplate, he could just feel the work that went into making it. The pauldrons were next followed by the gloves and boots. As soon as he put the leather helmet on his head, a strange feeling came over him. He felt...lighter, for some reason. Like a single step would carry him for miles.

Needless to say, his teammates for this match were stunned with the new look. He looked like a ranger from some of the old movies or what they thought one looked like from their Dungeons and Dragons games. Percy was equiped with a bronze helmet and breastplate and given a sword from the armory to give him a fighting chance. If there was any chance that Clarisse still held a grudge from Percy soaking them in the toilet water from earlier after they ignored Naruto's warning, now would be her chance to take her revenge.

A horn rang across the forest and the game was on. Naruto jumped into the treetops and began to jump from limb to limb with practiced ease. Annabeth already gave him a job to do. Scout from the treetops and keep anyone from the other team from coming close to their flag. As he shot through the treetops, he could see a group of Demeter's children and Apollo's kids coming from the middle. If he had to guess, there were two other groups that were planning on flanking the defenders using a pincer maneuver. Clever, he would admit to himself, but no plan ever survived an encounter with Naruto Uzumaki.

Naruto drew three arrows and fired them one after the other at the weapons of his targets. All three connected with the bows being held by Apollo's sons, sending them deep into the brush and rendering them unusable. He then dropped down from the treetops and held a knife to Katie Gardner's throat.

"I do believe I've captured all six of you," Naruto said with a grin. All six dropped their weapons and raised their hands as Naruto put away his knife. Shikamaru and a few of Athena's children were there to take them to jail. As soon as everyone in the area was gone, Naruto walked over to a tree and proceeded to relax his body. Before he knew what was happening, he sank into the shadow of the tree and began to panic.

He closed his eyes, expecting to have been caught by a monster, but when nothing happened, he opened them again. Everything he saw was varying shades of black and white and things seemed to move slower than they normally did. He looked down to his hands and saw nothing but the darkest black he'd ever seen. His skin. His armor. Even his bronze weapons were all black as night. He went to take a step and felt himself move almost instantly to the shadow of a connecting tree.

The more he moved, the more he began to enjoy being like this. He had to come up with something to describe this.

"Shadow Form," he said, before shock entered his body. His voice was incredibly deep. Deeper than even Chiron's voice or Mr. D's voice. "Woah. Creepy voice. Alright. I can deal with that. Let's see what else Shadow Form can do."

With that said, he proceeded to Shadow Run from shadow to shadow toward the direction Percy was at. As he neared the place Percy was at, he could see Percy had sustained a few cuts from the weapons of the Ares kids, including Clarisse. However, it wasn't long before Luke had snuck by everyone and grabbed the flag, winning the game for the blue team.

Percy stepped into the water of the running creek, guided by Annabeth, and felt his wounds knitting together and his exhaustion seemingly vanished. However, the festivities didn't last long as a Hellhound, from out of nowhere, proceeded to pounce in Percy's direction.

Naruto jumped out of the shadows. "NO," he cried before drawing his bow, creating an arrow of light, and firing it at the airborne Hellhound, which vanished into a golden dust. Everyone just looked at Percy and Naruto with wide eyes. Chiron walked out into the clearing and coughed into his hands.

"It has been determined," Chiron spoke.

"My father," Percy and Naruto asked questioningly, earning a nod from Chiron.

"Poseidon, Earthshaker, Stormbringer, Father of Horses," Chiron said neutrally. "Hail, Perceus Jackson, son of the Sea God. Apollo, Healer, Oracle, Grand Musician, and Sun Guider. Hail, Naruto Uzumaki, son of the Sun God and Great Grandson of the Sea God."

"By the gods," the two heard Annabeth Chase whisper to herself as she stumbled back slightly at the revelation. "I didn't think...I thought it would be Zeus."

Even Clarisse was too shocked for words, as were the sons of Apollo. One of their brothers had somehow attained their father's fabled Photokinesis, something none of them had believed to ever be possible.

It didn't take long before Mr. D as entered the forest and heaved a mighty sigh. "Of all of the demi-gods who had to come to Camp this year, why did it have to be you two?"

Naruto's eye twitched somewhat violently. "I'm sorry. Did someone just say they wanted an arrow of piercing hot light shot through their immortal skull?"

Whether Mr. D paid any attention to the threat wasn't clear to anybody as he just turned pointedly toward Percy. "There are a lot of people who want you dead right now. However, you are still needed so I doubt any of those people will be willing to kill you just yet. At least, not until you've done your job. Both of you. Follow me to the Big House."

Everyone around them had an idea what was going on except them and that definitely annoyed them both. For now, they could only follow Mr. D to the Big House and hope to figure out just what the hell was going on.