Disclaimer: I do not own anything from the Naruto or Percy Jackson franchises. Comments/Criticism is fine as long as it isn't straight up hate or flaming. If you do not like, no one is forcing you to read and you can just leave.

Thank you for reading and please enjoy

From the Other Side

-Chapter 7-

-Last time-

Asuma didn't make a sound as he felt Ino release her possession on him, not even bothering trying to move as he felt the ninja wire binding him from the neck down while Naruto, Ino, and Choji stood over him with identical triumphant smiles. "Hm, looks like you three got me, guess that means you pass the test." He said with a grin, making the three cheer happily before jumping back in surprise as the man's bindings suddenly fell loose and he stood up without issue.

"Congratulations team 10, meet me here tomorrow at eight o'clock for training."

-And Now-

Naruto expected a lot of things when he finally became a fully-fledged ninja. He expected long adventure filled missions filled with fighting, saving lives, and having awesome adventures. He anticipated long hard training sessions where he struggled to learn new, badass techniques to make him a better ninja.

…he did NOT expect to be crouching in some civilian woman's garden pulling out weeds with his two teammates while said woman stood over their shoulders and telling him off for every little mistake. "I said get all of the weeds, that includes the roots. Oi, be careful with the petunias girl, I spent months cultivating them to perfection."

'I freaking hate D-rank missions.' Naruto thought with a twitching eyebrow as he stuffed a handful of dandelions into a compost bin. He and his team had been stuck doing these thing for almost three weeks now and they were starting to get on his last nerve.

"On that we agree, these things are nothing but a complete waste of time and my patience." Artemis said as she massaged her forehead, these 'missions' were nothing more than glorified chores and a lot of the time the civilian hiring them whined and bitched about almost everything. The worst one in her opinion was catching that stupid cat Tora. She had felt every single scratch that Naruto had gotten and not even her natural affinity towards animals had been able to calm that stupid feline down.

'At least the training makes up for it somewhat." Naruto thought. Throughout the three weeks Asuma had been drilling the three of them through various team and individual exercises while also teaching them to improve their chakra control with the Tree Climbing technique. This involved walking up a tree or vertical surface by channeling chakra to the bottom of your feet, too little and you wouldn't stick while too much would destroy the tree under our feet. 'And don't forget we finally found a way for you to have your own body thanks to Ino and Asuma-sensei.'

"I'll admit that is a boon, there's hope for that girl yet." Shortly after the test, Naruto was forced to explain his 'Split-Personality' to Choji and Ino thanks to Artemis's little appearance. While the chubby boy had trouble understanding, Ino was easily able to grasp the concept thanks to her having to study the human mind while learning her clan's techniques.

After a long and very personal series of questions that Naruto was forced to answer in order to get his fellow blonde to agree not to tell anyone about it, Ino had jokingly commented on getting Artemis her own body so she wouldn't have to deal with being stuck in Naruto's head. Instead of being insulted though, Naruto had grown curios about the idea and had asked Asuma if such a thing was possible.

He in turn had said that here might be one, but he had to run it past the Hokage first. Two days later, Naruto was the proud new user of the Kage-Bunshin no Jutsu, a more complex and chakra intensive version of the Bunshin no Jutsu that made solid fully functional copies of the user. By making a single one of these, Naruto could allow Artemis to possess it and still remain in complete control of his own body. When she did this, Naruto would lose most of the silver flecks in his eyes and clone would automatically change to Artemis's true appearance.

The only downsides were that A. The clones tended to disperse after taking only a single hit so Artemis had to be extra careful and B. For some reason whenever Artemis did this, a thin golden chain would burst from the back of Naruto's neck and latch onto hers. Well, there was also the six hour shopping spree that Ino had forcefully dragged the both of them into to buy Artemis some new clothes, but the two had agreed never to mention that horrible experience ever again… so many dresses. *Shiver* Still, despite these drawbacks, Naruto had been none-the-less super happy to finally be able to meet his 'neechan' face to face for the first time and had given Ino a near back-breaking hug in thanks.

…His face still stung from the slapping she had given him in response, but he didn't mind one bit.

'Still, hopefully Asuma-sensei will keep his word and we'll finally get to do a C-rank after this.' Naruto thought while digging his hands back into the soil with a grunt, sending a sidelong glance to said man as he leaned against a fence smoking.

"As far as males go, he seems trustworthy enough. If not however, I will show him exactly how I earned the title of Huntress." Artemis said, cracking her knuckles for added emphasis.

Naruto shivered slightly at the thought, remembering how effectively the goddess had tracked, killed, and butches an eight-hundred-pound bear during her promised hunting trip. He learned two things that day, bear-steak is awesome when grilled with barbeque sauce and he never wanted to be hunted by Artemis. 'That might be taking it a little too far, don't you think?'

The silence he received was all the answer he needed.

"Alright boys and girls, that's a wrap for today." Asuma's voice cut in as he rolled up a small scroll with the civilian woman's signature on it, said woman giving all three of them a distusting glare before marching back into her house. "Let's head over to the Mission Hall and we'll get that C-rank I promised you all."

"Finally, if I had to listen to that woman whine one more time I swear I was going to mind jump her and make her do the chicken dance in the market district." Ino grumbled while wiping fertilizer off her hands. "Those stupid flowers aren't even petunias their-"

"Calibrachoas, you'd think she'd know that with how much 'effort' she put in caring for them." Naruto cut in with equal annoyance as he stood up and dusted himself off. Noticing the long silence around him, he glanced around to see Ino staring at him in surprise. "What? Me and Arty-neechan like to garden, remember?"

The girl had enough decency to look sheepish at that, since he had even gone to her family shop on several occasions to buy certain plants and had even helped him with his not-so-little rooftop garden herself once. "Right, sorry." She mumbled as she dropped her gaze and they headed out.

Ino was still shocked on how much she was learning about her enigmatic blonde teammate. Ever since her first few weeks of going to the academy, she had always seen Naruto as a lazy, inattentive, hyperactive, loudmouthed idiot that was always causing trouble and so had naturally paid very little attention to him other than to use his crush on Sakura as teasing ammo against the pinkette. Now that she was literally forced to spend time with him however, she found the true meaning of the phrase 'don't judge a book by its cover'.

Sure, Naruto was still a hyperactive knucklehead that tended to be overly exuberant, but he wasn't as stupid as she had thought, he just had trouble understanding things at first and sometimes needed it dumbed down a bit. He was also quite perceptive when it came to fighting, quickly coming up with on the fly and somewhat crazy plans that would somehow work… most of the time.

There were also the more sensitive things she had learned about him, such as the fact he was an orphan during said visit to his garden. That was something she really should have known already, given she had been in the same class as him for a few years now and she had never once seen any form of parental figure with him, but like previously stated she had never actually bothered to pay attention to him. It had also explained his lack of social skills and childish mannerisms since she doubted anyone had actually taken the time to teach him better.

Boy did she feel like a bitch after that, remembering all the times she had mocked him both openly and behind his back for such things. Especially when she figured that Artemis was most likely a result of his desperation towards having some kind of family, even if it was just imaginary. It was made a bit better when she met Shizune though when the apprentice stopped by to make sure he was taking his meds, some kind of sleep aids.

Ino was broken out of her thoughts as the Ninja Academy came into sight. Instead of walking in the main entrance though, the quartet took a left and headed towards a large doorway on the side that had a sign above it that said, 'Mission Hall'.

Stepping through, they were greeted by the Third Hokage as he, Iruka, and a couple of other ninja that they didn't know sorting through various scrolls and documents. Walking up to Iruka, Asuma handed him the scroll from earlier before turning towards Hiruzen with a slightly stiff bow. "Mission completed sir, and ready for a debrief on that C-rank I had requested yesterday."

Nodding his head, the elderly kage took a deep draw from his pipe while pulling out a scroll with the kanji for 'C-rank' across it in bold and handed it over. "Your mission is a joint mission with Team nine to the land of Kinoko. The ruling body there, Princess Momo has asked for assistance on dealing with her country's overpopulation of turtles."

"Seriously Jiji?" Naruto asked with a deadpan, ignoring the light slap Ino gave him for speaking informally. "You're sending us to go hunt turtles?"

"Well, that was the original plan but someone had other ideas." Hiruzen said with a sigh as he pinched the bridge of his nose. Before Naruto could ask him what he meant, the door behind them suddenly slammed open. Looking back to see what the cause was, Naruto recoiled slightly at the sight of a tall muscular man wearing a skintight green jumpsuit with orange leg warmers with a bowl haircut and the biggest pair of eyebrows he had ever seen in his life.

"YOSH! Team Nine reporting for their duty of youthful saving the poor turtles of their most unyouthful fate Hokage-Sama!" The man yelled exuberantly while marching into the room, followed by an equally excited mini version of himself, an exasperated girl with her hair done up in two buns, and a stoic Hyuga boy who's twitching eyebrow was the only sign of his annoyance.

*Sigh* "Hello Gai-san, glad to see you're so excited to get going. There has been a slight change of plans however." Hiruzen said, getting the now named Gai to calm down slightly. "Asuma and Team Ten will joining you on your mission as a way to get themselves acquainted to missions outside the village. I assume you don't mind, correct?"

"Of course not Hokage-Sama! This just means I have the opportunity to help fan the flames of youth in these young genin alongside my own!" Gai yelled, while his mini-me cheered and the bun girl sighed in defeat.

"Good to hear. Off you go then, you have two hours to get ready before needing to depart." The Hokage said with a dismissive wave of his hand, getting the eight to leave. Once the door closed behind them, the elderly leader turned to Iruka with a raised eyebrow. "Not going to complain about them not being ready like you did with Team Seven?"

"No sir," He said while continuing to sort through scrolls. "Because unlike Team Seven, you're at least sending this team off with a more experience team as support."

"I guess that is fair enough."

-With Teams Nine and Ten-

"Alright you three, since this will be your first mission out of the village, each of you will have a member of Gai's team to help you get ready." Asuma said before grunting as Gai patted him roughly on the back.

"An excellent idea my youthful comrade!" Gai yelled boisterously with a laugh. "Lee, you go with the young lady!" The mini-me saluted with a cry of "Yosh!" before running off while a shivering Ino followed. "Neji, you help the big-boned lad!" The Hyuga scoffed with a reluctant nod of his head as he marched off with Choji in tow. "And Tenten, you'll-"

"I get it, come on blondie," The bun-girl said with a roll of her eyes while grabbing Naruto's arm and dragging him off. "We're going to my family's shop."

"Uh, why?" Naruto asked after pulling himself out of her grip with a grunt.

"To get you properly equipped, those empty sheaths aren't exactly going to intimidate anyone you know." Tenten stated while pointing to said sheaths around his waist.

"Oh, but I already got that covered." Naruto said while summoning the Dancing Lunar Blades into their holsters with a flash of silver light. At the same time, he pulled out the scroll he kept his bow and quiver and unsealed them for her to see. "See, I ju- Oi!" He exclaimed when the brunette swiped the daggers and began looking them over critically.

"These… these are amazing." Tenten muttered in awe, giving the blades a few test swings. "Perfectly balanced, no visible flaws, honed to just the right sharpness-"

"And not yours." Naruto cut in with annoyance as he unsummoned the knives with another flash and resealed his bow. "Ain't you ever heard of personal property befo- Hey?!" The boy yelled as Tenten grabbed him by the shoulders, hoisted him up to eye level, and pulled him uncomfortably close to her face.

"Where did you get those weapons? Who made them? Tell me!" She demanded excitedly. Instead of verbally answering, Naruto frowned deeply with a twitching eyebrow before tilting his head back and harshly ramming his forehead into hers. "GAH!"

'Why is every girl I meet so freaking weird, dattebayo?' Naruto thought to himself as he landed back on his feet, watching the dazed girl carefully as she recovered.

"I would normally be insulted by that, if I wasn't wondering the exact same thing." Artemis admitted with a sigh.

"Ow, ow, ow, what is your skull made out of?" Tenten asked slightly groggily while rubbing the rapidly growing red spot on her forehead. Shaking her head a few times to clear the ringing still echoing in her head, she looked back at the still annoyed looking blonde and smiled a little sheepishly. "Sorry about that, weapons are my specialty and sometimes I can get a little… overly excited."

"No kidding," Naruto deadpanned, making the bun-haired girl laugh awkwardly. "Whatever, let's just get going." He said before gesturing for her to take the lead again. "…So does your shop happen to sell arrows?"

"Only the best!"

"I'll be the judge of that."

-End Chapter-

AN: The results of the Naruto's companions vote are in. Starting with the most commonly suggested one, the winner is a wolf by a landslide. As for the most uniquely suggested companion, well you guys have given quite a few such as a harpy, a phoenix, and even specific characters like Trico from the last guardian.

I had so much trouble deciding in the end that I just put them all into a hat and drew one and the winner was the Pocket-sized Lamia by a PMer who asked not to be mentioned by name. Thank you all for your suggestions and sorry if you are disappointed that yours wasn't picked.

And also, if anyone can catch the reference I put in this chapter I put in this chapter gets an Internet cookie. Thanks for reading and please review.