Oh my various gods!


The bathroom incident quickly spread through the grapevine and whenever they went some campers whispered and pointed at Percy murmuring things like 'Look it's the lord of the toilets' or 'the supreme lord of the bathroom is there'. Now normally people would have deflated at such a title but this was Percy…and he hung out with Naruto…on a daily basis.

"It's finally happened Naruto, they have recognised the awesome power that is shit-bending and now they have begun to fear me."

"There is something very wrong with that statement." Annabeth deadpanned.

They were shown more places: the metal shop (where Naruto had a maniacal grin and Percy had a raised eyebrow), the arts-and-crafts room (where Percy had a maniacal grin and Naruto had a raised eyebrow), and the climbing wall, which consisted of two facing walls that shook violently, dropped boulders, sprayed lava, and clashed together if you didn't get to the top fast enough.

They weren't impressed.

Finally, they returned to the canoeing lake, where the trail led back to the cabins.

"I've got training to do," Annabeth said flatly. "Dinner's at seven-thirty. Just follow your cabin to the mess hall."

"Hey Annabeth." Annabeth waited for him and seeing the apologetic face he was giving she was probably expecting what he was going to say. "I'm not sorry about the toilets." Or not.

"Hey, they had it coming, you don't want to mess with me without my coffee." He defended in answer to the incredulous expression she adopted.

"You need to talk to a therapist." Annabeth concluded seeing that the boy before her was certifiably insane.

"Oh we went to see one and they said that we were perfectly fine." Annabeth decided that it was not worth the time and migraine to try to understand them.

"Alright, all you need is to talk to the Oracle," Annabeth sighed.

"…Are you sure that's not a metaphor for a therapist?" Percy asked slowly.

"No you idiot, I mean the Oracle of Delphi!" Annabeth sighed exasperatedly.

She turned to see Naruto had stared into the lake to see him waving. At the bottom of the pier were two teenage girls, they wore blue jeans and shimmering green shirts, and their brown hair floated loosely. They smiled and waved at him, giggling to each other as Naruto gave them a lop-sided grin that made their giggling more intense.

"Don't encourage them," Annabeth warned. "Naiads are terrible flirts."

"Can't help it." He replied, smiling again with an easy grin.

"Since we are underdetermined, who's your dad?" Percy said, curious. If he noticed how her hands tightened around the pier railing then he didn't make a comment about it.

"My dad is a professor at West Point," she said, an edge in her voice. "I haven't seen him since I was very small. He teaches American History."

"A human huh."

"What? You assume it has to be a male god who finds a human female attractive? How sexist is that?"

"Okay first off, I didn't assume that your godly parent was male. I was asking who your father was. And second, I know you're not a children of a male god because you don't share qualities with anyone of them or their kids. At first I thought you were a child of Ares." Annabeth scowled but Percy continued.

"But by comparing you to them, I found very little similarities. A daughter of Aphrodite? Unlikely, judging from the fact that they care a lot about their looks and seem to radiate an aura of natural beauty and you radiate an aura of intelligence similar to the people from cabin six. How about a child of Demeter? Possibly but your appearance is too different and the fact that you have grey eyes also like the people from cabin six. Now you could be from Cabin Eight but with the fact that no-one appears to living in it then that possibility was eliminated." Annabeth's eyes widened at his explanation.

"So cabin six, with it coming up in my observations and that fact it has a coat of grey and an owl on top. The probability of you being a daughter of the Goddess of Battle and Wisdom given your behaviour and the questions you fired at us then it was a female god who probably found a human male attractive in some way or another. and now you're here. So no I do not assume, I theorise, I observe and then I make my conclusion. I don't skip the few steps just to throw out wild theories."

By now everyone was staring at the two while Annabeth was staring back at Percy with calculating grey eyes.

"If you'll excuse, I'll be headed off to find a caffeinated beverage before I find someone else who's going to experience the joys of a sewer bath."

With that, Percy continued on his self-imposed quest and Naruto just sighed at his brother's retreating back.

"Sorry about that, he gets like that sometimes if he doesn't get caffeine in his body. So do all the campers stay here for summer?"

"Some campers do. If you're a child of Aphrodite or Demeter, you're probably not a real powerful force. The monsters might ignore you, so you can get by with a few months of summer training and live in the mortal world the rest of the year. But for some of us, it's too dangerous to leave. We're year-rounders. In the mortal world, we attract monsters. They sense us. They come to challenge us. Most of the time, they'll ignore us until we're old enough to cause trouble – about ten or eleven years old, but after that, most demigods either make their way here, or they get killed off. A few manage to survive in the outside world and become famous. Believe me, if I told you the names, you'd know them. Some don't even realise they're demigods. But very, very few are like that."

"So are you a year-rounder."

Annabeth nodded. From under the collar of T-shirt she pulled a leather necklace with five clay beads of different colours. It was just like Luke's, except Annabeth's also has a big golf ring strung on it, like a college ring.

"I've been here since I was seven," she said. "Every August, on the last day of summer session, you get a bead for surviving another year. I've been here longer than most of the counsellors, and they're all in college."

"How morbid." Naruto said flatly. "Why'd you come so young?"

She twisted the ring on her necklace. "None of your business."

"Fair enough." Naruto stood there with Annabeth staring out into the lake enjoying the moment when Percy decided he found coffee and was holding a steaming cup in hand and walked towards them, a question on his lips as he approached.

"Alright quick question, Naruto and me-"

"I-"

"-I, can walk out of here anytime we want?"

"It would be suicide, but you could, with Mr. D's or Chiron's permission. But they wouldn't give permission until the end of the summer session unless…"

"Unless?" Percy took a long sip of his coffee.

"You were granted a quest. But that hardly happens. The last time…"

"What? Did someone die?" She was oddly tight-lipped and turned her head away. He raised an eyebrow.

"Sorry. Back in the sick room, when you were feeding me that stuff-"

"Ambrosia."

"Yeah that. You asked me about a summer solstice?"

Annabeth tensed. "So you do know something?"

"No. Something pretty suspicious was going on in my old school when we overheard Grover and Chiron talking about it. Something about a deadline. What does that mean?"

"I wish I knew. Chiron and the satyrs, they know, but they won't tell me. Something is wrong in Olympus, something pretty major. Last time I was there, everything seemed so normal."

"You've been to Olympus?"

"Some of us year-rounders, we took a field trip during winter solstice. That's when the gods have their big annual council."

"So how did you get to Olympus?"

"The Long Island Railroad, of course. You get off at Penn Station. Empire State Building, special elevator to the six hundredth floor." She looked at both of them like they already knew this. "You are New Yorkers right?"

"So you're assuming that two demigods who have never been to or heard of the half-blood life knows how to operate the secret elevator in the Empire State Building to Olympus. Now who's the one making assumptions?"

"Right after we visited," Annabeth continued. "The weather got weird, as if the gods had started fighting. A couple of times since, I've overheard satyrs talking. The best I can figure out is that something important was stolen. And if it isn't returned by summer solstice, there's going to be trouble. When you came, I was hoping… I mean – Athena can get along with just about anybody, except for Ares. And of course she's got the rivalry with Poseidon. But, I mean, aside from that, I thought we could work together. I thought you might know something."

They both wanted to help but they were too hungry and food was a priority.

"I've got to get a quest," Annabeth muttered to herself. "I'm not too young. If they would just tell me the problem…"


Back at cabin eleven, everybody was talking and horsing around, waiting for dinner. While Naruto was playing darts with throwing knives that gave someone in the cabin a heart attack. Percy had just noticed that a lot of the campers in the cabin had the same features: sharp noses, upturned eyebrows, mischievous smiles. They were the kind of kids that teachers would peg as troublemakers. In a sense, they were sort of like Naruto, natural born pranksters. He was relieved that he was left alone for the moment as he sat down with his Minotaur horn.

The counsellor, Luke, came over. He had the Hermes family resemblance, too. It was marred that scar on his right cheek, but his smile was intact. "Found you a sleeping bag," he said. "And here, I stole you some toiletries from the camp store."

Percy rose an eyebrow, at his 'resourceful' he didn't question it and took the bag in hand. "Thanks."

"No prob." Luke sat next to him, pushed his back against the wall. "Tough first day? Though, unlike you, Naruto seems to be making himself at home."

"Naruto is great at adapting." Percy chuckled sadly. "Me, not so much. If I'm taken out of my comfort zone I become… edgy. I mean all this talk about gods, that's some reality shattering stuff right there.

"Yeah," Luke said. "That's how we all started. Once you start believing in them, it doesn't get any easier."

"So…your dad is Hermes?"

He pulled a switchblade out of his back pocket, and for a second Percy thought he was going to gut him, but he just scraped the mud off the sole of his sandal. "Yeah. Hermes."

"The God of Medicine, travellers, messengers."

"And merchants, thieves. Anybody who uses the roads. That's why you're here, enjoying cabin eleven's hospitality. Hermes isn't picky about who he sponsors."

"You ever meet your dad?" He asked, hoping if Luke ever met his own father.

"Once." Luke said but didn't seem to say more on that subject.

"So, I guess he claims all his kids." Percy said.

"Pretty much, but I was kind of wondering if Naruto was one of us. Apparently not as he has not been claimed yet." Luke said amused as Naruto was done with using them as darts and started juggling them, Percy looked away from Luke and chuckled at Naruto's circus act.

"Don't worry about it, Percy. The campers here, they're mostly good people. After all, we're extended family, right? We take care of each other."

"Clarisse, from Ares, was joking about me being 'Big Three' material. Then Annabeth ... twice, she said I might be 'the one.' She said I should talk to the Oracle. What was that all about?"

Luke folded his knife. "I hate prophecies."

"What do you mean?"

Luke's face twitched around the scar. "Let's just say I messed things up for everybody else. The last two years, ever since my trip to the Garden of the Hesperides went sour, Chiron hasn't allowed any more quests. Annabeth's been dying to get out into the world. She pestered Chiron so much he finally told her he already knew her fate. He'd had a prophecy from the Oracle. He wouldn't tell her the whole thing, but he said Annabeth wasn't destined to go on a quest yet. She had to wait until... somebody special came to the camp.

"Somebody special? You mean like me or god-forbid, Naruto. I mean, his brand of special, that's a bit overkill." Percy smiled only to catch a knife.

"I heard that."

"You know it's true."

"They just can't handle my awesomeness."

"I can see why you would say that." Luke smiled lightly at their banter.

"Oh ho trust me when I say that when he has the look, you'd better be far away from what he has in stored."

"Well don't worry about it," Luke said. "Annabeth wants to think every new camper who comes through here is the omen she's been waiting for. Now, come on, its dinnertime." The moment he said it, a horn blew in the distance.

Luke yelled, "Eleven, fall in!" The whole cabin, about twenty or so of kids, filed into the commons yard. They lined up in order of seniority, so of course Percy and Naruto were dead last, though Naruto didn't seem to mind and Percy just didn't care. Campers came from the other cabins, too, except for the three empty cabins at the end, and cabin eight, which had looked normal in the daytime, but was now starting to glow silver as the sun went down.

They marched up the hill to the mess hall pavilion. Satyrs joined the group from the meadow. Naiads emerged from the canoeing lake. A few other girls came out of the woods, literally. In all, there were maybe a hundred campers, a few dozen satyrs, and a dozen assorted wood nymphs and naiads.

At the pavilion, torches blazed around the marble columns. A central fire burned in a bronze brazier the size of a bathtub. Each cabin had its own table, covered in white cloth trimmed in purple. Four of the tables were empty, but cabin eleven's was way overcrowded. Percy and Naruto managed to squeeze in but there was no elbow room whatsoever.

The boys saw Grover sitting at table twelve with Mr. D, a few satyrs, and a couple of plump blond boys who looked just like Mr. D. Chiron stood to one side, the picnic table being way too small for a centaur. That made Naruto laugh some.

Annabeth sat at table six with a bunch of serious-looking athletic kids, all with her gray eyes and honey-blond hair, proving Percy's theory correct.

Clarisse sat behind them at Ares's table. She'd apparently gotten over being hosed down and then blow dried, because she was laughing and belching right alongside her friends.

Finally, Chiron pounded his hoof against the marble floor of the pavilion, and everybody fell silent. He raised a glass. "To the gods!"

Everybody else raised their glasses. "To the gods!" Naruto being Naruto, cheered loudly along with the rest of them while Percy did it half-heartedly.

Wood nymphs came forward with platters of food: grapes, apples, strawberries, cheese, fresh bread, and yes, barbecue! Naruto and Percy's glasses was empty, but Luke said, "Speak to it. Whatever you want—non-alcoholic, of course."

While Percy experimented with his Blue Cherry Coke, Naruto asked, "Orange Lift!" That made Percy laugh loudly. No matter what he and Grover did, they could never get the blond away from the colour orange and realised it was an exercise in futility. Then some food was passed to the two boys.

"Come on!" Luke called. They followed him to the bathtub fire and saw people throwing in a good portion of their food in it. "Burnt offerings for the gods. They like the smell." He murmured.

The boys gave Luke a deadpanned look. "You're kidding."

Luke's look warned them not to take this lightly, but they couldn't help wondering why an immortal, all-powerful being would like the smell of burning food. But whatever floats their boat, right? Luke approached the fire, bowed his head, and tossed in a cluster of fat red grapes. "Hermes."

While Percy made a silent prayer to Poseidon, he threw it in there and not much happened except for an odd smell of chocolate and fresh-baked brownies, hamburgers on the grill and wildflowers, and a hundred other good things that shouldn't have gone well together, but did. Percy looked oddly at it before letting Naruto have his turn.

Naruto threw his piece in there before the familiar smell of his mother's ramen filled the air. Then something weird happened, the fire turned pure black for a few seconds before turning back to normal. Naruto looked back to see that Percy and a lot of other people had seen it too. They all had their eyebrows raised high. Naruto, curious, threw another piece of food and prayed to his father to turn the fire green this time. He wasn't disappointed when it did. So he tried again but prayed to Hestia for rainbow colours. He was grinning when the fire did turn rainbow. Percy smacked the back of his head.

"Stop doing that." Naruto chuckled mischievously.

After that, they ate quickly, with Naruto finding his favourite food on the table, RAMEN! Of course it was only in one bowl, but he did not mind. The odd thing was that when he finished it, it came back! He could tick off having an infinite supply of ramen off his list of dreams.

When everybody had returned to their seats and finished eating their meals, Chiron pounded his hoof again for their attention. Mr. D got up with a huge sigh. "Yes, I suppose I'd better say hello to all you brats. Well, hello. Our activities director, Chiron, says the next capture the flag is Friday. Cabin five presently holds the laurels."

A bunch of ugly cheering rose from the Ares table.

"Personally," Mr. D continued, "I couldn't care less, but congratulations. Also, I should tell you that we have two new campers today. Peter Johnson and Narado Uzamasi"

"Naruto Uzumaki!" Naruto barked out, but Mr. D just smirked. He may like this kid but it was fun getting on his nerves. There was also laughter from the Ares table. Though it was for the fact that a camper had yelled at Mr. D.

Then Chiron mutctered something. "Er, Percy Jackson," Mr. D corrected. "That's right. Hurrah, and all that. Now run along to your silly campfire. Go on."

Everybody cheered. They all headed down toward the amphitheatre, where Apollo's cabin led a sing-along. They sang camp songs about the gods and ate s'mores and joked around. This made Percy feel more comfortable. He even laughed when Naruto decided to do a solo with a ukulele.

Yeah maybe camp wasn't so bad after all.


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I am sorry that I have not updated in a while but here it is another chapter.