The six different quest members continued their deadly game of the floor is lava as they desperately tried to find something they could use to give Naruto his needed shot. Whenever anyone got a chance they would take out a minion or two that the Heptad created monster had sent out. However, taking out the minions was an exercise in futility as the beast would simply spit out more minions to replenish what was lost. The other monsters that typically inhabited the Underworld were suspiciously absent from the conflict. The quest members were happy that they didn't have anything else adding onto their troubles, but a few of them were surprised not see hide or hair of a halfblood's usual foes. Unknown the sextet, all of the other monsters had sensed the beast and decided to not involve themselves with that thing.

While the other monsters not entering the fray was one less complication for the heroes, it still didn't help them find something that could insure that the beast's maw would be open for the shot. Naruto was ideally thinking some heavy chains and hooks, but finding something like that was a bit of a problem. It wasn't like they had a road map to the Underworld and it was kind of hard to search when one had a massive beast and dozens of minions on one's ass. Naruto thought that he might find what he was looking for in the Fields of Punishment and so he was trying to direct the party in that general direction. Still, it was difficult to do because Naruto was deliberately avoiding Hades' palace which was the main landmark and reference point in the Underworld. Who knew what the beast would do if it got near Hades.

As the six leapt between stalactites the chakra drain on the younger members of the group started to show. Annabeth started having trouble sticking to the stalactite she was on. Naruto spotted her issues and immediately created a clone to carry her. The beast saw this and knew that it was time to move in for the kill. It started to create even more minions and spat them up at the stalactites that its prey was using to try and escape it. These attacks forced the quest members to move even faster and have less time to try and find what they were looking for. Many times they just had to leap away as soon as they landed.

It was inevitable that a mistake would happen to the sextet under these circumstances. Percy made a slight miscalculation on a jump and missed the stalactite he was trying to reach. Naruto, Annabeth, and Grover all saw Percy start to fall and yelled out as one, "Percy!" Naruto created a clone and threw the clone at Percy hoping to use it to throw Percy back up at the group. However, the beast spotted everything and bit the clone on the leg with one of its heads. Heptad's custom created monster wanted the rest of its prey to feel despair as it slowly destroyed the separated member in front of the others.

Percy continued falling and tried to shift his weight to better control his fall. He had two choices for a landing ground. One was the hard rock with a slight chance of being skewered by stalagmites. The other choice was a wide and rather forbidding looking river. Percy couldn't recall the various rivers of the underworld at this moment and he was pretty sure none of them were good places to be in. However, landing in a river was a lot safer for him than landing on the hard ground as his time in St. Louis proved. Percy gathered some chakra in his mouth along with using his innate power to unleash a blast of water. The water wasn't nearly enough to kill his decent, but it did push him so that he would land in the river.

There was a powerful splash as Percy hit the river and disappeared beneath its depths. The beast and its minions started to congregate at the shore bank ready to make Percy a permanent resident of the Underworld when he emerged from the river. Naruto started to create dozens of clones and sent them down to try and thin the minion herd. Issei and Zoe started to shoot at the minions to help out in the rescue operation. One of the clones dove into the river trying to rescue Percy. Naruto hoped to be able to extract Percy so they could continue to look for a way to set up the beast for destruction.

The clone that had gone in the river quickly dispersed with its memories completely blank. As soon as Naruto received that lack of memories, he knew that the nearby river was Lethe. This fact instantly put Naruto and his clones on high alert. Thanks to the river Percy wouldn't have a clue what was going on or just how much danger he was in. At least being a son of Poseidon his cousin wouldn't drown in Lethe. Naruto created one more clone and had it stand next to him so that it could relay to the other clones where Percy surfaced.

A minute after the clone tried to enter Lethe, there was disturbance on the river several meters away quickly got Naruto and his lookout clone's attention. To Naruto and everyone else's shock, a massive Suiryuudan formed on the surface of Lethe with the head of the water dragon being several meters across. The Suiryuudan attack rushed forward while actually letting out a roar. It snaked its way around half a dozen of Naruto's clones so as to destroy nearly a dozen minions. A second Suiryuudan attack emerged from the river several meters away closer to the shore as the first one abated.

Naruto felt a massive surge of killing intent coming from the river and was concerned. This killing intent was far too strong for Percy to generate and Naruto hadn't taught anyone yet how to project killing intent. The only time he felt killing intent like this was from extremely powerful ninjas back in the elemental countries who been through the wars. In the young shinobi's experience, the only thing that could generate a stronger killing intent than what he was feeling now was the tailed beasts.

Percy calmly rose from the water letting Naruto realize that the killing intent was coming from his cousin which didn't make any sense. The boy was supposed to have complete memory loss from diving into Lethe. However, Percy was currently taking a defensive stance and radiating a sense of power and experience that he never had before. Surprises just kept coming as Percy looked up apparently spotting the other quest members and then returned his attention to The Beast. The should have been amnesic boy then made a half-hand sign and summoned a protective wall of water around him.

Before anyone else could say or do anything, Percy pulled out a kunai from the pouch that Chiron insisted everyone on his quest take. One of the boy's fingers started to glow slightly as he rapidly traced something onto the kunai. As soon as Percy was done he took the kunai and threw it up near the other quest members causing the kunai to hit a nearby stalactite. There was a flash of bluish white light when the kunai hit the stalactite and Percy was now standing on the stalactite next to the kunai he had thrown.

Naruto wasn't sure what was going on. Percy had somehow preformed the Hiraishin jutsu when there was no way on this earth he could have known it. Besides the fact that Percy hadn't advanced enough with ninjutsu for Naruto to consider training him in such a move, there was only one copy of the instructions for that jutsu on earth. That copy was kept on Naruto's person at all times and he wasn't planning on sharing it with anyone except for his children. There was also the fact that everyone could see Percy holding himself in a completely different way and a lack of recognition of them in his eyes.

Percy took a quick look at Naruto's headband with Konoha's headband and then spoke with full weight of authority. "Konoha shinobi, what mission are you on that the Hokage would authorize using the Edo Tensei? How do you even know that jutsu in the first place? During my fight with my old student Sarutobi he mentioned he had destroyed all copies of that jutsu so you shouldn't know it let alone have modified it as you did to summon me into this body with its current abilities."

That statement nearly gave Naruto a mental breakdown. He had never mentioned that vile jutsu to anyone on Earth. Furthermore, Naruto knew of only one time when the Sandaime had fought against that jutsu and it was when Orochimaru used it to summon the Shodai and the Nidaime in his invasion of Konoha. The Sandaime's teacher had been the Nidaime. But those too facts that "Percy" stated in his speech implied something that just didn't make any sense and should be impossible.

Naruto then decided to test what he thought was going on and asked, "Tobirama Senju?" Percy, or rather Tobirama, nodded his head once to answer. Naruto shook his head to try and focus. How by Tartarus the Nidaime had possessed Percy wasn't the issue at the moment. Naruto then said, "No one on my team summoned you Nidaime and that will have to be solved latter. What matters at the moment is to take that Beast down. It's got invulnerable skin so I need to force open one of its mouths, preferable the big one on its chest, so I can use a jutsu to destroy it from the inside. This thing can spew acid and create smaller being to attack. Do you think you can get its maw open so I can attack?"

Tobirama nodded his head and said, "That should be possible. This body cannot handle my full abilities, but its ability to regenerate near water sources should compensate somewhat. The possessed halfblood then jumped off of the stalactite, created a shadow clone, and both he and his clone landed safely on Lethe's surface. Tobirama and his clone each created a massive Suiryuudan. Both attacks rushed towards the Beast and each dragon bit down on a side of its maw. Then then proceeded to pull the maw open exposing it for Naruto's attack.

Up on the stalactites, Naruto quickly pulled out the kanabo and prepped it for firing. Three-fourths of the spiked clubbed area of the kanabo opened up on the six edges extending each panel about three inches further away from the center of the kanabo then were they had been. An angry red glow came from the semi-exposed core of the weapon and sparks of demonic energy started to jump between the panels. As Tobirama's Suiryuudans raced towards their prey, a spinning ball of energy started to form at the exposed end of Naruto's weapon. The energy ball continued to become denser and glower ever brighter by the second.

Once he had the shoot Naruto yelled out, "Fire in the hole!" The kanabo focused Bijuudama tore out in a brilliant beam of energy right into the center of the Beast's exposed mouth. The Bijuudama was so massive that part of it hit sides of the monster's mouth. The bits of the attack that hit the side were reflected by the magic of Styx in various directions. Luckily, none of the reflected bits came near anyone on the quest. Most of the attack when into the Beast and caused it to violently explode destroying it.

A few minutes later, everyone was down on the ground with most of the party circling around Percy/Tobirama. The one ones not circling demigod with the identity crisis was several clones of Naruto who were searching the remains of the beast. Grover let out a goat's baa and said, "What happened to you Percy?"

Naruto quickly spoke up, "Somehow, Percy seems to have been possessed by one of my home village's deceased leaders. How I don't know, but there is something I want to check. Tobirama, what was the jutsu that the Sandaime used to defeat you and your brother the last time you were summoned from beyond the grave?"

Tobirama turned to look at Naruto and said, "I don't know the name of the jutsu, your clan never shared that with me. However, I do know that it summoned the Shinigami and sealed myself, my brother, and Sarutobi into the Shinigami's stomach where we were supposed to remain for all eternity."

Most of the party stared at Tobirama in shock and horror. Naruto nodded his head and then said, "That matches what I was told about the Hokage fight during the invasion. Doesn't explain how you got out of the Shinigami's stomach unless the text of the jutsu was speaking metaphorically which I doubt or your soul caused a bad case of divine indigestion. There's also the fact that the Shinigami is the god of death for the Elemental Countries which are a completely different realm then Earth."

A frown appeared on Naruto's face as he continued to think out loud. "Even if we discount the fact that your soul is supposed to be locked away, there is still no explaining how you ended up in Percy. None of us used, would think of using, or even know how to perform the Edo Tensei. Percy fell into Lethe, a river here in the Underworld the land of the dead for Earth, which erases all of a person's memory. He should be wandering around without a single memory, not possessed by you."

Tobirama closed his eyes as he brought his considerable intellect to bare. With his eyes closed in thought, he proceeded to ask the other quest members questions about the Underworld in general and the river Lethe in particular. Finally, he opened his eyes and gave his opinion on the matter. "There is no way that the Edo Tensei is involved in this like I thought. It might be the most powerful and immoral jutsu I ever created, but there is no way that it could just push a sealed soul out of one realm and into some random body in another realm. Possibly summon a soul from one realm into another if someone put a lot of power into the jutsu, but certainly not push a soul between realms."

There was a minor tremor from the ground when Tobirama stated that he had created the Edo Tensei. Several members of the quest suspected that Hades was listening in and did not like the idea of that jutsu at all. Annabeth look nervously at the possessed Percy barely noticing how Tobirama's posture and stance seemed to radically change the preteen's looks. "Do you have any idea what happened to Percy or how to bring him back?"

Everyone watched as Tobirama nodded his head and answered Athena's daughter. "Given the known facts, there is only one logical explanation even if it seems improbable to the point of impossible. The river Lethe is supposed to make dead souls forget their lives before they are reincarnated and it gives living souls amnesia. However, no one has any information on what the river does to a living person who has had a past life. Especially, if that past life was forcefully pulled closer to the surface by outside forces."

Zoe looked at Tobirama in disbelief. "You think that Percy is your reincarnation?"

Tobirama turned to look at the hunter and nodded. "It's the only explanation I can think of. How my soul could enter another realm I don't understand. But, it makes far more sense than for me somehow spontaneously possess the boy."

This conversation ended when one of Naruto clones shouted out, "I found it! Hey boss, hand over something to cover this stupid artifact." The real Naruto quickly unsealed a large piece of tarp and threw it at the clone. The tarp was easily caught by the clone that proceeded to wrap up the mirror without letting its reflective side catch a glimpse of anyone. It then walked over to Naruto who promptly sealed the mirror away in a scroll. After the mirror was sealed, all of his clones dispersed.

Annabeth quickly commentated on Naruto actions. "So that's the artifact that the Fates wanted you to collect Naruto? What is it and why did you cover it like that?"

Naruto quickly said, "The artifact and its nature are none of your business Annabeth. I covered it because the artifact is extremely dangerous if left exposed. Besides, don't you three have an artifact of your own to locate? I find it highly unlikely that my mother's diadem ended up in the Underworld."

Athena's daughter bristled at Naruto's rebuke and shot back, "We're here following the Oracle's advice. Percy was told 'You shall go west, and face the god who has turned'. The Lord of the Dead is the god who resides in the West. Chiron said so himself."

The shinobi's response to this was to rap Annabeth lightly on the head. "What did I tell you about how damn easy it is to misinterpret a prophecy? You jumped the gun you three. In case you forgot, you received your prophecy in Camp Halfblood which is located on Long Island. Over 80 percent of the United States is west of Camp! Furthermore, the prophecy just said where you will face the god. It said nothing about the god usually hanging out in the West. Did you happen to encounter any gods or goddesses before you came to the Underworld?"

Grover nervously answered Naruto's question while looking down at his revealed hooves. He had lost both of the sneakers Luke had given him at some point during the constant leaping from stalactite to stalactite. "We met Lord Ares and he sent us to collect his shield in return for some supplies and a way out west. He pointed out that he suspected that the Lord of the Underworld was behind the attack as a war between Atlantis and Olympus would strengthen the Underworld."

Naruto and Issei both stared at Grover like he had suddenly grown a second head. Issei blurted out, "What complete idiot would believe a load of tripe like that? Seriously, if you believe that then I've got a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you. The dead outnumber the living by an utterly ridiculous ratio and undead spirits are extremely difficult for those in the mystical know to kill. Every enemy they kill is one new recruit for their side and even 'killing' the undead spirits only temporarily prevents them from reforming. The Lords of the Dead could have taken over the living world centuries ago in they wanted to do so. Besides, warfare is the last thing a god of the dead would want since even under ideal circumstances they're pulling lots of overtime clocking in all of the new souls that die every day."

Once Issei shut up, Naruto spoke up while making a give me gesture with his hand. "Let me see everything my brother gave you besides the ride right now."

Annabeth spoke up and said, "Besides the ride and some food, all we got was the backpack that Percy is wearing."

Naruto turned to look at Tobirama and held out his hand for the bag. Tobirama looked puzzled for a second before he noticed the straps of the backpack. He then took off the backpack and handed it to Naruto who promptly opened it. Seconds later, Naruto pulled out his mother diadem shocking Grover and Annabeth while a twitch formed on the shinobi's face. The diadem went back into the backpack and then Naruto proceeded to bonk Grover and Annabeth on the head. He turned to the reincarnated Hokage and said, "I'll smack you once Percy regains his memories."

Zoe then spoke up and said, "Since the main objectives of both our quests have been secured I think it would be wise of us to leave the Underworld. The Hospitable One may be as his title says, but it would very rude of us to spend more time here than is necessary."

Annabeth cut in projecting a sense of soreness over being shown up on the quest she was a part of. "What about Percy? Even if the Lord here isn't behind the diadem theft like we thought, he might be the only one who knows how to restore Percy's memories!"

Naruto gave his incarnation identity challenged cousin a quick glance and then looked down at where he had sealed away the Yata no Kagami. He then pulled out a blank scroll, unsealed a set of seal making supplies, and sat down on the ground. Without looking up from the scroll as Naruto began to create a set of seals he gave everyone a series of orders. "We're leaving the Underworld in a few minutes. Percy might have lost the most important thing a person can have, but I'm pretty sure I knew of a way to correct that loss. Since what I'm thinking of is quite dangerous, only he and I will be involved in that operation. To insure everyone's safety, I'm going to have to seal everyone away while I try to help Percy regain his memories. Until then, the three of you," Naruto paused for a second to point to the younger quest trio, "are going to be sealed away in this scroll. My team doesn't have the means to extract you and ourselves from my uncle's realm."

Seconds after Naruto finished speaking, he stepped away from the scroll revealing seven circles set up for sealing very large items away. Naruto then said, "Okay, one at a time I need you to step onto one of the circles so you can be sealed away. Remember, only one person per circle." Tobirama calmly walked onto the first circle and was promptly sealed away in a puff of smoke. Grover was next as he nervously allowed himself to be sealed away. Annabeth was hesitant at first, but a firm commanding look from Naruto convinced her to allow herself to be sealed away.

Issei and Zoe watched as Naruto quickly rolled up the scroll and sealed it away. The older trio then slowly made their way back to where their rides were hiding. They had covered a great distance running from the beast, but it had created an easy path for them to follow back.

After the trio returned to the surface, Issei, Zoe, and Skullspliter were sealed away in the scroll with Team Percy. Bucephalus took off with Naruto at top speed once those three were sealed away. The mystic steed was led away from people and raced across the mountains to reach the desert. Naruto finally able to find a place abandoned enough to suit his plan.

Once Naruto found a location, he dismounted and sealed Bucephalus away in the scroll with all of his other companions. Naruto then created three dozen clones and had them create a small cave that was tall enough to stand in and deep enough that anyone inside it could step into the shade completely out of the sun's light. The shinobi then dispersed his clones and walked into the cave so that he was standing on the edge between the light and the darkness.

Tobirama was summoned into the cave from the scroll in the dark area of the cave angled in such a way that he could see Naruto and the distant light. The incarnation identity challenged halfblood blinked his eyes several times quickly adjusting to the change in light and the after effects of being sealed away. Tobirama then focused on Naruto and asked, "How do you plan to help me regain my current incarnation's memories and how does this cave help in this process?"

A small chuckled escaped from Naruto's lips. "The cave doesn't help the process I'm planing to use to get your memories back. It's just to insure that no one else can see what I'm going to use to get those memories back since the item in question is very dangerous. What I'm planning on doing to get your memories back is to let you look into the Yata no Kagami. It's a very powerful artifact that brings the truth out of whatever is reflected in it. My hope is that it can bring out the truth of who your current incarnation is." With that said Naruto carefully unsealed the covered mirror and held it in his hands. Naruto used his chakra to hold the back of the mirror as he carefully took the cover off of the Yata no Kagami. He was not about to let the supreme shinju-kyo catch a glimpse of even a single digit of a finger if he could let it.

Tobirama leaned in slightly to get a better look into the ornate metal mirror Naruto was holding in front of him. Both of Tobirama's eyes widened when he saw a young preteen looking back at him in the mirror. He had known that his current incarnation was a young person based of his body's size and the pitch of his voice. The thing is that knowing this fact intellectually can only prepare one so much for the shock of seeing that your reflection is a little kid's face. Even when one was just using a henge to hide one's identity it was disconcerting. Not that such a thing was recommended as the size difference between an adult and a kid was such that a successful henge from an adult to a kid was difficult to pull off and even harder to maintain. A kid using a henge to pretend to be an adult had its own difficulties as well, but slightly easier to pull off.

A small glow started to come from the mirror portion of the Yata no Kagami. The glow allowed Tobirama/Percy's image to become clearer in the mirror. Tobirama suddenly found himself frozen in place and then the glow from the mirror became a bright illuminating green beam. This was when Tyche decided to be a bitch and throw a monkey wrench into Naruto's plan. The beam of light made the entire man made cave as bright as day. This was a problem because there were a fair number of crystals in the walls of the cave. These crystals were very small and worthless from any monetary point of view.

However, the crystals were reflective and that was all that mattered. A few of the crystals caught part of Naruto's image and reflected it poorly into the mirror of the Yata no Kagami. Only one crystal would have been sufficient to trigger the mirror's power on Naruto. The shinobi found himself frozen in place just like his cousin had been seconds previously. Parts of the beam of energy emanating from the mirror bounced off of the wall and hit Naruto. He was then covered in the energy.

For a second, Naruto felt himself drowning in emotions and memories that he couldn't control. Images were flashing through his mind of places that he knew he had never seen. This wasn't like one of those demigod dreams he had to deal with for years since coming to Earth. These emotions and memories were far too vivid to be anything more than the real deal. Even if Naruto had been able to think under the assault he wouldn't have the first clue how to go about looking for how he got these emotions and memories. The last time Naruto had been completely consumed by emotions like this was when Pein had attacked Konoha and Naruto had released eight tails of the Kyuubi's chakra.

Naruto wasn't feeling the pure hatred and despair that he had felt during Pein's attack. But, the sheer volume and variety of memories and emotions was crashing down on Naruto like an avalanche. He couldn't think and was quickly losing all sense of who he was. The teen's personal memories, feelings, and personality was dissolving in the deluge like table salt stirred into a bowl of water. Part of Naruto knew that he was losing himself, but he couldn't stop what was happening.

A powerful and comforting presence then cut through the maelstrom of memories and feelings separating the foreign storm from Naruto's self. Naruto felt this presence grab onto his hand and help to pull himself together. Then to Naruto's shock, a voice that he had only briefly heard once before spoke to him. "I'm always here to help you when you need it most son."

Naruto's eyes snapped opened in a moment and he stared in shock unable to believe what he was seeing. The whiteness of the possible mindscape wasn't given the faintest bit of attention by the shinobi. All he could focus on was the caring smile on the face of his father Minato Namikaze who against all expectation was standing in front of him and who had save his life again after being completely overwhelmed. Naruto muttered in shock, "But the last of your chakra that you sealed."

Minato nodded and said, "That chakra was use up son. However, a father is always with his children even if they cannot see him. Even from the grave, a parent will always look after their children and do their best to help them out when needed. I just am more able to help my children than most parents and you needed my help to restore your brother's current incarnation's memories."

Before Naruto could ask Minato what he was talking about, rays of green light seemed to come from all over the place and get sucked into Minato. Naruto blinked his eyes and then notice a massive amount of green light coming from his body going into Minato. Another blink revealed another massive ray of green light coming from Percy who was suddenly visible to the shinobi. Despite all of the green light coming at Minato, his image remained perfectly clear and visible to the two boys. Soon no more green light was coming from anywhere.

Percy and Naruto then watched in surprise and Minato's form started to shift to someone else's form and that person's name came to their mind. It was King Alaric of the Goths who was standing before the duo. Alaric stood before them for a moment still smiling in a paternal manner and then shifted again to reveal Chakravartin Ashoka Maurya. The next shift changed the image of Ashoka to that of King David of Israel. After David the next incarnation to be revealed was Hector of Troy. When Percy saw Hector's visage he felt an especially strong pull. Finally, Hector's image was replaced with that of Hagoromo Otsutsuki and behind Hagoromo's body the right half of a massive face made of clouds appeared. Naruto recognized the half face as the face of Ouranos.