Fox outta Hell
Hey this is Razor, I thank all of those who do review. The feed back helps alot. Enjoy
Ch 10: Of Gods and Goddesses
"Person speaking"
'Person thinking'
"Monster speaking"
'Monster thought'
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They rode until sunset, which was about as much as their back ends could take. Imagine riding a giant steel brush over a bed of gravel all day. That's about how comfortable boar-riding was.
Naruto had know idea how many miles they had covered, but the mountains faded into the distance and were replaced by miles of flat, dry land. The grass and scrub brush got sparser until they were galloping across the desert.
As night fell, the boar came to a stop at a creek bed and snorted. He started drinking muddy water, then ripped a saguaro cactus out of the ground and chewed it, needles and all.
"This is as far as he'll go." Grover said. "We need to get off while he's eating."
Nobody needed convincing. They slipped off the boar's back while he was busy ripping up cacti. Then the group waddled away from the beast as best they could with their saddle sores. After it's third saguaro and another drink of muddy water, the boar squealed and belched, at this point Naruto held up a sign with 5.6 on it. They decided not to ask where he got it. The boar then whirled around and galloped back toward the east.
"It likes the mountains better." Percy said. Itachi nodded and looked longingly at the direction they came from.
"I can't blame it." Thalia said. "Look."
Ahead of them was a two-lane road half covered with sand. On the other side was a cluster of buildings too small to be a town: a boarded-up house, a taco shop that looked like it hadn't opened since before Zoe Nightshade was born, and a white stucco post office with a sign that said: GILA CLAW, ARIZONA hanging crooked above the door. Beyond that was a range of hills... but then the group slowly noticed the 'Hills' were enormous mounds of old cars, appliances, and other scrap metal. The country side was too flat for them to be hills. It was a junkyard that seemed to go on forever.
"Whoa." Came from Percy.
"Something tells me we're not going to find a car rental here." Thalia said in dry humor. She looked at Grover. "I don't suppose you got another wild boar up your sleeve?"
"He better not. There are a lot of things I never want to relive and that's now in the top ten. Congrates Grover, you pissed me off more than eighty percent of the people I know." Naruto grumbled. Percy and Annabeth snickered while Zoe cracked a small smile.
Grover was sniffing the wind, looking nervous. He fished out his acorns and threw them into the sand, then played his pipes. They rearranged themselves in a pattern that made no sense to most except Grover and possibly Zoe. The former looked concerned.
"That's us." He said. "Those five nuts right there." Percy leaned over to get a better look.
"Which one is me?" He asked.
"The little deformed one." Zoe suggested. It was Naruto's turn to snicker now and he was enjoying the great burn on Zoe's part.
"Oh shut up." He had an annoyed look on his face while everyone lightened up at the small joke.
"That cluster right there." Grover said as he pointed to the pile on the left. "That's trouble."
"A monster?" Thalia asked uneasily.
Groover shared her feelings. "I don't smell anything, which doesn't make sense. But the acorns don't lie. Our next challenge..."
He didn't finish, instead opting to point straight toward the junkyard. With the sunlight almost gone now, the hills of metal looked something like an alien planet.
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Just Outside Junkyard
Nobody wanted to go dumpster diving for the night so the group decided to camp near the junkyard and would try to conquer it in the morning.
Only Zoe and Naruto were up now, the former had produced sleeping bags for all, and were keeping guard over the camp. He never really thought about it, but now that he did Naruto noticed that most of the things the Hunter needed, just appeared slung over her back. And when they didn't need it, they were gone. Similar to storage seals, Naruto thought.
The night got chilly fast, so Grover and Percy collected old boards from the ruined house, and Thalia zapped them with an electric shock to start a campfire. Pretty soon they were as comfy as you could get in a rundown ghost town in the middle of nowhere.
Naruto had the sneaking suspicion that Itachi was just faking it and was atempting to spy on him.
"The stars are out." Zoe said as she stared at the night sky. Naruto looked up and noticed this as well. She was right. There were millions of them, with no city lights to turn the sky orange.
"Yes, they are. I've never taken the chance to look at this worlds stars. There aren't that many." He said softly as he enjoyed the calmness of the moment.
"This is nothing." Zoe said, almost as if she was bragging. "In the old days, there were more. Whole constellations have disappeared because of human light pollution."
"You talk as if you're not human." Naruto said softly as his gaze never wandered from the night sky.
Zoe raised an eyebrow. "I am a Hunter. I care what happens to the wild places of the world. Can the same be said of thee?" Naruto finally looked at her with a sad gaze.
"For you." He corrected. "Not thee."
Zoe threw up her hands in exasperation. "I hate this language. It changes too often! And you avoided the question." Naruto chuckled and nodded.
"Glad you caught that or I wouldn't have answered you. My old world depended more on the elements than technology. Sure we had a few things but nowhere near what this world has. We have no cars, no satellites, no major pollution. It's nice. I used to watch the stars from the mountain side in my old village. It was peaceful." He was reminising of the natural beauty of his old world.
Zoe was unusually silent. She was looking at Naruto as he gazed at the stars.
"Tell me of your world." The request was sudden Naruto almost showed outward surprise. He chuckled and laid back in preparation of his tale.
"Well Konoha, my former village, was considered a moderate area. Lots of forest and rivers as well as lakes and ponds. There was this one waterfall just outside the village that was so secluded no had probably been there before because it was so out of the way. Suna was surrounded by hundreds of miles of desert and sand. Kumo was located on the side of a mountain range and was known for its thunderstorms. Iwa was in between two huge mountains and was a great canyon country. Mist was a set of islands so heavily fogged and was surrounded by oceans so vast and deep, filled with life. And those are just the major areas"
Zoe was listening in rapt attention as Naruto told tales of his worlds wilderness. It was just as vast and beautiful as theirs used to be. It would be nice to visit one day, she decided.
They talked most of the night away before Naruto made shadow clones to take over the watch. A little aways from them, Itachi had a small smile on his face.
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Junkyard, Morning
The group was getting ready to move into the junkyard when a blazing light hit them from down the road.
The headllights of a car came out of nowhere and Percy was half hoping for it to be Apollo again. Naruto couldn't blame him. But the engine was way too silent for it to be the sun chariot and, on top of that, it was nighttime. They grabbed their sleeping bags and got out of the way as a deathly white limousine slid to a stop in front of them.
The back door of the limo opened right next to Percy. Before he could step away, the point of a sword touched his throat. Zoe drew her bow while Annabeth pulled out her daggers and Thalia put on Aegis. As the owner got out of the car, Percy movedd back very slowly. He had to, because someone was pushing the point under his chin.
He smiled cruelly at Percy. "Not so fast now, are you, punk?"
He was a big man with a crew cut, black leather biker's jacket, black jeans, a white muscle shirt, and combat boots. Wraparound shades hid his eyes, but Percy knew what was behind those glasses; hollow sockets filled with flames.
"Ares." Percy growled. Before the war god ould respond a gun was to his chin and two knives positioned at his kidneys. Naruto had his Stygian Iron pistol drawn and held to his chin while Itachi had two kunai ready to pierce his kidneys and other organs.
"I'd suggest you remove the sword or you'll end up looking very ugly." Naruto said in his monotone voice which was void of emotion.
The war god glanced at the others before speaking. "At ease, people."
He snapped his fingers and their weapons fell to the ground. Except Naruto's, he was using his incredible strength to hold his pistol in place. Ares raised an eyebrow at the display.
"Not bad, not bad at all. Even with my godly powers you are still able to keep hold of your weapon. You can put that away now. Besides, this is a friendly meeting." He dug the point of his blade a little farther under Percy's chin and in response Naruto's gun was shoved further into the god's face. Not that he seemed to care. "Of course I'd like to take yourhead for a trophy, but someone wants to see you. And I never behead my enemies in front of a lady."
A velvety voice called from the limo as a window was rolled down. "Hold on. The blonde ninja will be more than enough, actually." Ares removed his sword and shoved Percy away.
"You heard her punk, beat it. Blondie, come one." He snapped his fingers and the lights inside the taqueria suddenly blazed to life. The boards flew off the door and the CLOSED sign flipped to OPEN. "The rest of you can beat it. go get some tacos."
"We will not leave him alone with thee, Lord Ares." Zoe said which surprised Naruto greatly.
"Go on." Naruto said as he turned to the group. "I can handle this."
"You heard the man." Ares said impatiently. "He's big and strong. He's got things under control."
They reluctantly headed over to the taco restaurant. Zoe needed to be coaxed a little bit to leave as well as Itachi, but soon they joined the others.
When he was inside Naruto saw one of the most beautiful women in his entire life. Hi jaw nearly dropped.
She was wearing a red satin dress and her hair was curled in a cascade of ringlets. Her face had perfect makeup, dazzling eyes, a smile that would've lit up the dark side of the moon. He couldn't seem to know what color her hair or eyes were.
"Ah, there you are. I've wondered what you had been up to since that little meeting in Olympus. I am Aphrodite." Naruto did his best to remain composed and cool as possible. He put on his best emotionless face and spoke in a monotone voice.
"I could've guessed that. What do you want with me?" She smiled even when he ignored her supposed kindness. In case you didn't know it, Naruto was not a very trusting person. You had to earn his trust.
She handed him a polished mirror the size of a dinner plate and had him hold it for her. She leaned forward and dabbed at her lipstick, though he couldn't see anything wrong with it.
"Straight to the point, eh? I think that's one of the reasons Zeus gave you his blessing. Anyway I'm here for to make sure love prevails as it always should. Tell me why are you one this quest?"
"Artemis has been captured and aside from that, the oracle gave me the quest."
Aphrodite rolled her eyes. "Oh, Artemis. Please. Talk about hopeless case. I mean if they were going to kidnap a goddess, she should be breathtakingly beautiful, don't you think? I pity the poor dear who have to imprison Artemis. Bo-ring!"
Naruto stayed silent. Though inside he was seething at the lake of concern for supposed family.
"But my dear Naruto, that is why the others are on this quest. I'm more interested in you."
Naruto knew what she was talking about. The prophecy mentioned an entire line just for him. "The Son of Death shall decide the fate of another beyond the land without rain. "
She brightened up immediately. "Yes! Now you're getting it. You are going have a chance to save little miss Hunter. And I can smell the love in the air. Ah, like fresh daisies. Now you better woo her right or it'll all fall apart. I know she has a crush on you and you have similar feelings for her. But her damn pride as a Hunter and saving Artemis means more to her right now. Make things interesting for me, okay?" Naruto lost whatever calmness he had and started to stutter out in denial. But Ares grabbed him by his shoulder and threw him out of the limo.
He landed on his back and heard the goddess of love shout out of her limo window one last time before leaving. "Make sure to tell Percy to save Annabeth from joining the Hunters!"
The others rushed to him as he laid still in the sand.
'This is gonna be a troublesome quest.' He thought.
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Hey hoped ya'll liked it. Again not much to say.
dracoman: No his sage training will not be in effect because he never signed the toad's contract.
Read, Review, Flames will be used to make Marshmellows.
Cya next time. This is Razor.