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

Thank you and please enjoy

From the Other Side

-Chapter 10-

-Last Time-

Unfortunately, Naruto hadn't managed to react in time to escape unscathed and his right arm was ever so briefly engulfed by the passing inferno, roasting off the sleeve of his jacket in seconds and scorching the skin underneath. Crying out in agony, the pain caused him to lose focus on his surroundings and he ended up harshly smashing into the branch he'd been aiming for. The force of the impact snapped the branch with ease, sending him tumbling through the underlying canopy until he hit the muddy ground below with a *Splat*.

Then, as if to add insult to injury, just as he slowly lifted his head up to see something massive and reptilian crashing through the incinerated landscape and towards the village, the case he'd been carrying landing on his head with a cracking sound before landing in the mud next to him completely unharmed with its contents intact.

-And Now, five minutes later-

"…Uhh…" Naruto groaned weakly before coughing out a mouthful of mud as he tried to push himself up, only to collapse as a massive amount of pain shot through both his arm and head alongside a heavy wave of nausea. "…wha …wha haffened?" He asked with a heavy slur.

"You almost got roasted alive and then knocked out." Artemis said in a calm tone, though with no small amount of concern. "I'm channeling as much energy as I can into your injuries to bolster your regeneration, but it's going to take a while. Healing was never specialty."

"…thanths Arthy-nee… I'll ust lay here… and resth…" Naruto mumbled as his eyes started to droop shut, only to flutter back open as something grabbed his uninjured arm and flipped him over.

"Oh thank Kami, I finally found you. Naruto! Naruto, can you hear me?!" A familiar voice asked as a slender hand gently patted his cheek.

"Then-shan?" Naruto asked back as his blurry vision focused in on the bun-haired girl standing over him.

"Yeah, that's right," Tenten said with a small sigh of relief, before grimacing as she took in her companion's condition. His arm was covered in various third and second-degree burns and an alarming amount of blood covered his head and the ground around it. Thankfully the burns didn't seem to be too much of an issue as a soft silver glow started to emanate from them before they began to gradually shrink.

His head on the other hand, was much worse and the weapon specialist visibly recoiled after taking a closer look at the source. There was a visible dent on top of his head, with small bits of bone mixed around with the torn-up flesh. Like the burns, a small amount of Artemis's power, though much more concentrated than around the burns, was seeping into it, gradually repairing the damaged tissue and bone.

Shaking off her shock, Tenten reached down and picked Naruto up bridal style, making Naruto hiss out as the movement caused his head to throb and a bit of bile to rise in his throat. "Sorry Naruto."

"Ith fine Ten-shan," Naruto said as his head drooped against her chest, his slur a little bit better. "Let'sh get going, I thinth that thing was heashing for Omocha."

"Yeah, it was." Tenten said while turning around and looking at the trial of destruction that had been left in the creature's wake. "Hold on." She told him before they both vanished in a blur of movement.

Thanks to Tenten and Artemis's attention focused solely on Naruto's injuries, and the blonde himself too concussed to think of much else, none of them noticed the broken case lying on the ground or the pieces of eggshell and glass that lead to where Naruto had been laying.

It took almost ten minutes of non-stop sprinting for the pair to reach the village, at which point Naruto had recovered enough to stand on his two feet. Dropping down at the edge of the woods, both were met with the sight of a giant bipedal turtle with vibrant yellow skin with glowing green veins branching out everywhere.

Giant spikes easily as large as a human covered the back of its massive shell, and its beak-like mouth was chock full of razor sharp teeth that glinted menacingly. Flames and smoke billowed around it as it stomped through Omocha, multiple building shaving been crushed, shattered, or set aflame.

"OH COME THE FUCK ON! NOW THERE'S A CHAOS DAMNED BOWSER?!" Artemis yelled, making Naruto flinch as the sheer volume caused his still present headache to skyrocket.

"Dynamic Entry!" Gai's voice screamed out as he suddenly shot into the air and struck the now dubbed Bowser's face with a flying kick, making it stumble back a few steps. At the same time, Asuma zipped around the giant turtle's feet, slashing at every inch he could reach with his now glowing trench knives as he passed.

Sadly, neither of their attacks did much as the smoking Jonin's blades barely made a scratch in the Bowser's thick hide and it easily shrugged off Gai's kick. Roaring in anger, it retaliated with a powerful swipe that the Beautiful Green Beast of Konoha barely dodged, leaving the hopefully empty structure he had been standing on to get utterly obliterated.

"Whoa!" "Gah!" Naruto and Tenten exclaimed as they were almost knocked down by the force of the attack causing the entire area to shake.

"And it's just as brutally strong, perfect." Artemis said with a grimace.

'Hey, since you seem to know so much about this thing, how about a way to beat it?' Naruto asked as he readied his bow and Tenten pulled out several kunai.

"Well, since there isn't a fire flower nearby or a bottomless cliff to trick it into, let me think." Artemis muttered sarcastically, "I'd suggest either aiming for the eyes or hitting it with something that makes a really big bang, preferably both if you can manage it."

"Tenten, you have any more explosive tags?" Naruto asked, his response coming in the form of a large stack of red and white papers with the kanji 'Explode' on them being handed to him. "Thanks."

Taking a couple of the deceptively dangerous papers, he drew a plain arrow and wrapped the tags around it while Tenten did the same to her knives. "You do know that these will probably only piss that thing off, right?"

"That's the idea." Naruto said while nocking the arrow and lining up his shot, though his normally steady hands were trembling slightly.

"I was afraid you were going to say that." Tenten muttered with a sigh as she took aim as well.

-With Gai and Asuma-

"Kuso, we aren't even tickling it." Asuma swore as he skidded to a stop beside Gai, his breath coming in short ragged gasps and a bit of blood dripping from his side where a claw had grazed him earlier.

"This most unyouthful beast is powerful, that is for sure." Gai agreed, his usual boisterous and cheerful attitude replaced with one of complete seriousness. His body was covered in bruises and scratches while his normally tan skin was a deep red with veins bulging visibly and a greenish aura surrounded his body, a sign that he was using his signature technique the Eight Celestial Gates. "But we must not let that stop us, we need to at least hold it off long enough for our youthful students to get the civilians clear."

Their original plan when the monster had shown up was for the two to keep it distracted while their students got the civilians to safety so that the Jonin could really let loose. This proved easier said than done however, as the giant turtle was soon to reveal that it had not only an extremely high durability but also an immense amount of strength to back it up and a startling amount of speed for a creature of its bulk.

"I'm open to suggestions." Asuma said, getting ready to move again when his ears picked up a soft but familiar whistling sound. 'Wait, isn't that…'

Before he could complete his thought, an arrow and several kunai flew into sight. Sailing through the air, they struck against the beasts' head and exploding, with the Kunai hitting the skin covering its ear canal and the arrow hitting just below the left eye.

"RAAHHH!" Roaring angrily, Bowser and the two Jonin whipped their heads towards the direction the projectiles came from to see Naruto and Tenten who were quickly booking it.

'Oh thank Kami they're alright.' The men thought with relief, having been worried sick about the missing duo (trio including Artemis) ever since they didn't return to town on the agreed upon time. That worry had only increased ten-fold after the monstrosity they were fighting arrived from the same zone they had been assigned to.

Their relief was only short lived however, as Bowser roared again before turning around fully and charging.

"Okay, we pissed it off. Now what?" Tenten asked nervously as the beast started bearing down on them.

"We keep it distracted until we find a way to beat it, Taju Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Hundreds of clones puffed into existence around the pair, each one giving a loud battle cry before they charged towards Bowser. Naruto moved to join them, only for his body to suddenly seize up, making him start to collapse until Tenten caught him.

"What do you think you're doing?" Artemis demanded as she used all of what little control she had to briefly stop Naruto from moving.

'Helping stop the giant turtle from destroying everything.' Naruto thought with confusion as he tried to rest back control of his body, which was much harder than it normally was as his headache made it difficult to concentrate.

"By blindly charging at it in your state? You can barely walk straight right now, by Zeus it's a miracle you are walking at all. Not to mention your aim is almost completely shot." Artemis said, sweat dripping down her forehead as mini chains burst from the ground and restrained her, severing her control.

'I'm fine Arty-nee,' Naruto told her as he stood back up. 'Trust me, I won't do anything… too stupid.'

"That statement does not fill me with any confidence."

Naruto didn't respond as he tuned back into the real world, and saw that already almost all of his clones had been destroyed already. Shrugging off the concerned look that Tenten was giving him, Naruto made more clones, but instead charging like their predecessors had the copies of the whiskered blonde readied their bows and fired as many arrows as possible at Bowser.

Most did nothing more than bounce or shatter harmlessly upon impact, but a few managed to dig into the softer patches of skin around the neck and joints while spools upon spools of ninja wire unraveled all over it. While nowhere near strong enough to stop Bowser, they did manage to trip it up some, thus slowing it down long enough for Naruto and Tenten to get the hell out of dodge.

Sprinting around it as it struggled with the metal cables, they made it about halfway around before being cut off by Asuma. "Naruto, Tenten, glad to see you two are okay…ish." The smoker said, trailing off a little when he got a closer look at their battered forms, mostly Naruto's still healing arm and blood/mud-stained head.

"You too Entotsu-Sensei," Naruto said with a quick joking salute. "Where's everyone else?"

"YOOOOOOOOUTH!" Gai screamed as he hit Bowser with a devastating uppercut that sent the off-balance turtle tumbling over with a heavy *Thud*, inadvertently crushing the remaining clones underneath it.

"Their still in the village evacuating the civies, you two go help them while me and Gai deal with this thing." Asuma said.

"But Entotsu-Sensei, we can help with the Bowser." Naruto argued, earning himself a pair of weird looks from the man and Tenten for the name. "…Arty-Nee called it that."

"Look Naruto, now isn't the time for this. I am your leader and ordering you to help with the evac. Am I clear?" Asuma said sternly with a glare that made Naruto recoil before drooping his head in acceptance.

"Yes Sensei," He mumbled before sprinting off towards Omocha with Tenten.

Waiting until they were out of hearing range, Asuma sigh slightly with a frown. He didn't like acting harsh like that, but it was necessary as he didn't want any of his students to get hurt by trying to take on something that was clearly out of their league.

"GAH!" *Crash* Speaking of which, Asuma hopped out of the way as his fellow Jonin crashed into the spot he had been standing when Bowser managed to get a lucky hit on him.

"You alright Gai?"

"Yosh... for such an unyouthful creature… it certainly packs a most youthful punch."

"I'll take that as a yes."

-With Naruto and Tenten-

Arriving at the destroyed part of the village, Naruto once again spammed out several clones which began scouring the whole place for anyone. "I'll meet up with the others and keep looking with your clones, you check the castle and make sure Princess Momo is alright." Tenten said, getting a nod from the whiskered blonde before they split up.

'Smart girl,' Artemis thought, easily seeing Tenten's underlying reasoning. The castle was the farthest place from the fight and the naturally most fortified, meaning it would be the safest place to be at the moment. She was getting Naruto somewhere safe under the guise of helping the princess. 'Definitely need to recruit her once I'm out of these chains.'

'Sorry Naruto,' Tenten thought, feeling bad for tricking the boy, but even with how fast he was healing she was certain he was in no state to fight properly. Especially after that weird seizure he had a minute ago.

Unaware of either of the two girls' thoughts, Naruto continued to make a beeline towards the castle by rooftop. It took him almost five minutes to get there, mostly because he ended up stumbling a few times due to the pain in his head and arm flaring.

Leaping over the gates with ease, he zipped around the panicking guards and through the front door. He then ran down the main hall until he reached the throne room where a scared and concerned looking Momo sat on her throne surrounded by guards. "Momo-hime! What are you doing?! You should be getting out of here!"

"Trust me Naruto-san, I would like nothing more than to leave." Momo's voice shook slightly with nervousness and her hands gripped her thrones armrests so tightly her knuckles were white. "Unfortunately, my military advisor has other ideas." She said while giving the man standing next to her, an elderly fellow with greying brown hair, a handlebar mustache, a military tux, and a cane with a brown spotted mushroom handle, a dirty look.

"With all due respect your highness, the castle is the safest possible place you can be." The man said with utmost certainly in his voice. "It has withstood hundreds of invasions in the past and it will withstand a hundred mor-what are you doing!?" He demanded when Naruto suddenly walked right up to Momo and scooped her up into a bridal carry.

"Getting Momo-hime too safety before it's too… late…" Naruto trailed off as the ground started shaking and a shadow started rising over the room. Slowly looking towards the giant stained-glass window, Naruto's eyes widened in shock before he tightened his grip on the princess and leapt straight over the guards towards the exit.

-Play Bowser theme (Whichever version you prefer)-

He wasn't a moment too soon, as not even a second later Bowser arm burst through the roof and tore out an entire section. Huge chunks of stone fell, killing or injuring many of the guards, with Momo turning completely pale as a particularly large piece squashed both her throne and military advisor.

'What the fuck!? I thought Asuma-sensei and Super Bushy Brows were dealing with that thing.' Naruto yelled mentally as he hopped around several more times to avoid more falling debris.

"They're trying to, look." Artemis said while mentally nudging Naruto's eyes to the side where he could see Gai and Asuma attacking with everything they had, only to be blatantly ignored as Bowser kept attacking the castle.

'I don't get it, why is it so focused on the castle?' Naruto asked, stumbling back a bit as a chandelier crashed down in front of him.

"I don't know, I've only seen animals or monsters act like this when..." Artemis paused as Bowser sniffed the air and swiveled its head to look right at them. "…when they were chasing down their prey… Naruto. Move. Now!"

"Kuso!" Naruto swore as he barely managed to leap out of the way as a torrent of fire ripped through the space he had just been occupying.

"By Kami, Daimaō Kuppa. I thought he was just a myth." Momo muttered in shock, making Naruto glance at her briefly before focusing back on Bowser as he dodged a wild swing that took out another section of the castle.

'Arty-nee, what the hell is going on?'

"You're being hunted, that's what."

'I got that! I meant why!' Naruto thought while moving to an undamaged section of the castle for cover.

"It's a predator, a predator you pissed off a lot, why wouldn't it be hunting you? Also, incoming on your rear."

As soon as he heard this, Naruto leapt to the top of a nearby staircase and spun around, only for his jaw to drop at what he saw. "Oh come on! It can spit fucking lava!" Sure enough, down below Bowser's head could be seen sticking through the wall with red hot molten rock spraying out of its mouth.

Said head snapped to his position right after he spoke, forcing Naruto to jump out of the way as a stream of lava narrowly missed him and his screaming passenger. "That's it, no more of this crap!" Finding another hiding spot, Naruto made a single shadow clone and handed Momo over to it. "Get her to safety, now!"

"Hai Boss!" The clone said before running towards the main entrance while the original prepared his bow.

"Aren't you worried that Bowser will try and attack them?"

'No, I think it can tell me apart from the clones, otherwise-

"It would still be attacking the clones that are running all over the village." Artemis finished, nodding her head at the logic since both she and Naruto could still feel the heavy pull on his chakra reserves signifying that his clones were still active. "So what now, nothing you've done has done anything more than pissing it off, hence why we're in this situation."

'...'

"You're going to wing it aren't you?"

"You know me too well, nee-chan." Naruto said while quickly nocking an explosive tag arrow. Popping out around the corner, he fired at Bowser's eye again while running to another section of the castle. Sadly, while the shot was on target, the massive turtle's head moved at the last second and the projectile exploded harmlessly against its beaked maw as it continued to spew lava at him.

Undeterred, Naruto continued to run, jump, hop, flip, and just about every other acrobatic maneuver you can think of that helped him avoid getting roasted, sliced, smashed, or melted. All the while, he continued to try and fail at hitting Bowser's eyes.

Meanwhile, outside the castle, Gai and Asuma were forced to back off as all the excess lava started flowing outwards, rapidly covering the grounds and preventing them from getting close. On the plus side, Naruto's clone had managed to get the princess to safety as the he had managed to get a glimpse of it handing her to his sensei before dispelling. "Naruto, this isn't working."

"Yeah, I noticed," Naruto grumbled while rolling behind a chunk of stone just as a massive column of fire filled the area. "That's why I'm going to try something really REALLY stupid."

"Of course you are."

"Do you have a better idea?" Naruto asked, his voice just a touch snarky but also a bit desperate. When he was met with silence though, he just sighed heavily while nocking his last arrow. "I didn't think so."

Waiting for the flames to die down, Naruto took several deep breaths to steady his heartbeat before standing up and walking out from cover. When Bowser spotted him, he stopped and raised his bow.

"Naruto… please tell me you aren't trying to play chicken with a several ton lava spitting turtle."

Naruto didn't respond as he kept his focus firmly on Bowser as it opened its mouth wide to reveal the lava bubbling up in it's throat, before giving off a gurgling roar as it spat out the molten rock in a condensed stream. Despite this, the whiskered blonde didn't move an inch, watching as the lava streaked towards him at high speed.

"Naruto," Artemis said nervously as the lava got closer and Naruto still didn't move.

"Naruto!" Finally, when the scorching was mere feet away from him, Naruto reacted.

Jumping to the side at the last second, he bit down the urge to yelp as the lava missed him by a mere inch, the heat alone causing his exposed skin to start blistering. Ignoring this as best he could, he quickly realigned his shot and fired.

For a brief moment, time seemed to slow down as the arrow started to fly through the air, sailing towards its objective. Briefly blinded by the glare of its own attack, Bowser never saw the projectile coming until it was too late.

*Squelch* *BOOM*

"GRAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!" A scream of rage and pain burst from Bowser's throat as it clutched the gaping hole that used to be its eye, it's red

-Stop Music-

Naruto smirked at this for a moment before pausing as he heard a crackling sound. Confused, he looked down towards the source and froze when he saw his bow.

While most of the weapon looked fine, the bottom of the lower limb was blacked and shattered, having been scorched from the lava as it passed then snapping from the stress of firing.

Gently grasping the small segment still dangling from the string, he felt his heart ache as the charred wood crumbled apart between his fingers. Staring at the ashen remains in his hand, tears quickly to build up in his eyes and threatened to fall.

"Naruto… I'm sorry… I'm so sorry," Artemis murmured softly, not knowing what else to say.

"…Don't be," Naruto said as his hand closed into a fist, the remains of his bow groaned as his grip on them tightened. "It wasn't your fault."

-Play: Animal I've Become by Three Days Grace-

"It's his." He said while glared at Bowser as 'he' howled in agony. "And he is going to pay for it."

Within the seal, Artemis was trying to think of a way to console her host when she blinked as she felt a sudden invigorating and draining sensation. Looking at herself, she was shocked to see her whole body glowing a bright silver as a lot more of her power than normal was being drawn away. Looking behind herself, she saw that her bindings were also glowing, only this time a dark red signifying the power of the kyuubi as it was being forced into her.

Meanwhile, back in the real world, Naruto started to gain a soft silver glow around his form, not that he noticed as he was blinded by his anger.

"Naruto, I know you're upset, but you need to calm down and… you're not listening to me." Artemis said with a sigh as her host charged at the giant turtle.

Moving at speeds much faster than he normally does, it only took the whiskered teen a few seconds to reach the beast legs. He then used his chakra to stick to Bowser's leg, quickly scaling his way up the thrashing turtle side and up to its head.

Too focused on the searing pain of having its eye socket blown apart, Bowser didn't even notice its unwanted passenger until they were literally staring eye to eye. "If you think that hurt, then you're going to hate this!" With rage filled silver eyes, Naruto raised up his broken bow like a spear and promptly stabbed it as deep as he could into the until recently uninjured eye.

"GRAAAAAAAHHH!"

Bowser stumbled back several steps howling in pure agony while blindly swiping at its face, managing to scratch both itself and Naruto's back several times before it tripped over a large chunk of the castle it had torn off.

As it fell, Naruto summoned the Dancing Lunar Blades and proceeded to hack, slash, and stab everything in reach all the way down.

"AAAAAG-*Squelch*-garagrule." Coincidently, the place Bowser fell was directly over a church which had a large metal sun statue on top that pierced right through the back of the monster's head and erupted out of its mouth and forehead in a shower of greenish red blood.

-End Music-

Bowser's once mighty roars were reduced to a pathetic gurgling as it thrashed around in a desperate attempt to get back up, to no avail. As each second passed, its struggling got weaker and weaker until eventually it fell still entirely.

After a whole minute of not moving, Naruto slowly stood up and dispelled his daggers before reaching down and pulling out the remains of his weapon with a sharp tug, his breath coming in long ragged puffs. Limping over to the edge of the beast's head, he sloppily hopped down and ended up fall flat on his scratched up back.

"…ow…"

"Congratulations, you just took down a giant mutated monster turtle basically single-handedly. How do you feel?" Artemis asked sarcastically, though with a strong hint of concern mixed in.

"Peachy," Naruto said tiredly as he stayed sprawled out across the ground.

"Good, then you can deal with the thing that just slithered onto your chest."

"Say what now?" Naruto mumbled as he lifted his head up…

….and promptly had his jaw fall straight back down as he saw, "Am I hallucinating or is there a chibi snake lady on my chest?"

-End Chapter-

AN: Happy New Year everyone, sorry if this chapter is a bit sloppy caused I rushed to finish it on time. This AN will also be brief as it is getting late and I want to sleep. First off, if you guessed the pocket Lamia as the mystery egg's contents, then congratulations and please enjoy your internet cookie. Next, yes the military advisor was based off Toadsworth. The seven references last chapter were from TMNT, Resident Evil, Dead Space, Halo, Gamera, and The Seven Deadly Sins, if you still cant find them all, then too bad. Also Yes, it may seem like everyone was babying Naruto a bit in this chapter, but he did just recover from a very serious head injury. And finally Daimaō Kuppa is Bowser's original Japanese name and roughly translates to Great Demon King Turtle. Thank you for reading and please review