X. Coeus's Manor

Artemis had to admit, the place looked splendid. The ground was covered with white marble and the walls were painted with a beautiful sky blue. The ceiling was high above them with white lights being bright enough to make it seem like they were still outside. Apart from that, it was awfully empty. They did stumble upon a few renaissance paintings hanging on the walls, but otherwise the whole place was empty and very quiet. They had been walking in a straight line for what felt like a good five minutes now. She looked at Naruto. He had been walking at her right, eyes alert. He was holding his sword limply to the side of his body but Artemis made no mistake, he was ready to attack at a moment's notice.

"This place is definitely enchanted", Naruto said while looking ahead with an apprehensive look, "we've been walking like this for a while, no door, no turn, just a freaking straight corridor".

Argyll, who was resting on Naruto's shoulder made no noise, he was turned toward the back, making sure that nothing crept up on them.

Artemis finally had enough.

"Whoever you are, stop playing with us this instant", she demanded with all the authority she could muster.

There was a short silence and Artemis was getting ready to blow a fuse when a huge black door suddenly appeared in front of them. They quietly stared at each other, until Artemis took a decisive step toward the door and opened it.

"Oh where the hell are we now?", wondered Naruto out loud. The door they had opened led to an arena, where different monsters were packed on the bleachers, cheering wildly. Cyclops, empusas and other unrecognizable but terribly ugly monsters were waving their weapons menacingly at our trio. At the center of all this, located high up and sitting on a golden throne, Coeus, the Titan of knowledge, and Artemis's Grandfather.

"Welcome my little Arty, how are you?" Said Coeus with the joy of a child who has just acquired a new toy.

"Grandfather Coeus? What is this?" asked Artemis, taken aback by the reveal of her possible opponent.

"I'm sorry GRANDFATHER?", yelled Naruto while looking back and forth between Artemis and the titan sitting atop. Considering how high up he was and the fact that he still appeared bigger than them, Naruto estimated that he must have been well over nine and a half feet tall. His skin looked Golden and he had a regal but lazy air to him, as if everyone in the room was dumber than him. And considering who he was, that must have been the case.

"How is this possible, you're supposed to be in Tartarus, chained." said Artemis, completely dismissing Naruto's intervention.

"Oh Cerberus did try his best to keep me there, ha-ha after I collected myself thanks to the wonderful work of some monsters, I made my way up from Tartarus to the underworld, where I managed to fool that dog into chasing a tree branch, can you believe that?" , answered Coeus while an empousa flew up to his throne, a bottle of wine and a glass in hand. Coeus poured himself a glass and downed it before looking at Naruto. "So you're the one who comes to us from the elemental nation huh, it's a wonder the fates haven't snuffed you out yet, such a wild and dangerous card you are…".

He let his words trail, taking another sip out of his glass that had been replenished by the empousa who was also looking at Naruto. She licked her lips and smiled at him, revealing a set of pointy teeth. Naruto involuntarily took a step back.

Amongst all of this, Argyll stayed quiet. He was taking a look around, checking out possible escape routes, or figuring out a way to efficiently take out the monster that was sitting high up in front of them. Not only was Coeus a primordial titan, he was also one of the original pillars of the earth. He was as strong as maybe Hyperion or even Atlas. Since they didn't know how long he had been out of Tartarus, they couldn't properly assess how much of his strength he had recovered. The best option for them was to recover the hunters and get out of here as fast as possible. Talking about the hunters, they were nowhere to be seen.

"Where are my hunters?", demanded Artemis as she tensed up, preparing herself for a possible fight.

The crowd of monsters who had quieted down during the exchange started making noise again.

"Here and there", answered Coeus while waving his hands around, "don't worry, no harm has become them… yet". The titan then got up and raised his arms in a very theatrical manner.

"You see, after the oh so many centuries I've spent in Tartarus, I've been… bored'', His smile widened, "Ever since I woke up I've been roaming the earth. Evading you gods has been easy, you're all so convinced you've won you forgot that we're all immortals".

"What are you talking about?", asked Artemis, not liking the road the conversation was taking. "What does it have to do with you taking my hunters?"

"Nothing really, I just felt like chatting. Your hunters were just a means to get you here. I wanted to talk to you and play a little game, you see, this arena hasn't seen a good fight in a LONG WHILE!"

The way he bellowed the last words made the monsters around him screech to the top of their lungs, some of them even banging their weapons against the walls or the ground.

"Good of you to have brought along a Demigod" said Coeus while looking at Naruto with a glint in his eyes, "It would have been absolutely unfair if you were the one to go up against my monsters, I would have had to step in myself".

"Whatever game you think we are going to play with you, you can shove it up your…"

"Now now young Halfling, this is not a respectful way to speak to your elders", cut Coeus with a smile on his face. He liked the kid, he smelled of death and had a strange energy about him. He couldn't wait for him to go up against his top fighters.

Coeus redirected his gaze to Artemis.

"If you want the hunters, he'll have to fight".

"Why not me?" asked Artemis even though she already knew the answer.

"Because it will be too easy for you", answered Coeus while rolling his eyes, "They may be trained fighters but you're a goddess at full strength. With him. the odds are a little more even".

Artemis lowered her gaze, conflicted. She couldn't ask Naruto to risk his life for her hunters. For him to have accompanied her, was already more than some would have done. She could try to fight Coeus but he was a primordial being. A titan. Not at full strength, but a titan all the same. That was not a risk she was willing to take without any back up. This place was weird. She could not mentally link with her brother and their connection was strong enough to work in parts of Tartarus. This place was more hidden and shielded than Olympus.

"To be expected from the titan of knowledge" she thought bitterly. She then turned toward Naruto who was looking curiously at her.

"Look Naruto I…"

"I'll do it", cut the blonde without missing a beat.

"What?"

"I'll fight them", clarified Naruto, "Thanks to Annabeth and her lessons I know a lot of the monsters here and their weaknesses, I'm at one hundred percent right now, I can handle them".

"While I don't want to doubt you, I don't think you could go at it alone".

"He isn't alone", said a feminine voice behind them.

They all turned around to look at the newcomer.

Artemis's eyebrows raised when she caught a glimpse of the woman. She was beautiful and curvy but with an air of athleticism. She held herself like a warrior and was wearing some kind of crossover of Greek armor and a cat suit that accentuated the curves on her body. The woman had a cold look on her face, that was at least until her eyes turned to the blonde standing next to her. Her eyes softened almost immediately, and went from cold fury to pure love.

"Grace?" wondered Naruto while the woman jumped into his extended arms.

"Naruto" replied the woman with joy.

To say that Grace was in heaven would be an understatement. She truly had missed Naruto. He seemed to have grown even stronger and fearless. She rushed to him to give him a hug, bypassing the goddess of the hunt whom she barely paid attention to.

"Naruto I missed you so much", she yelled while jumping on him. Naruto opened his arm to break her fall and twirled her around a little. He, too, was happy to see her. After spinning around a few times, they finally settled down, Grace keeping her arms around Naruto's neck.

"How did you get here?" said Naruto with a renewed light in his eyes. He had never been away from her for so long during vacations and he was very happy to see her.

"Your Father Lord Hades sent me" she replied eerily, "he knew that you were gonna need my help and tracked down this place through a few monsters, oh I'm so glad to see you, I'm so sorry I wasn't there for you at the start of all of this, I should have been there and I should have gone to camp Half-blood with you, I…"

"It's alright Grace, don't worry about it, we're back together now, it's all that matters", gently placated Naruto while capturing her in another hug that Grace hurriedly fell back in.

"Erhm Erhm", interrupted Artemis who was a little miffed at being ignored by the newly arrived Grace. Naruto teared himself away from Grace who tried to hold on a little longer.

"Oh yeah right, Artemis this is Grace my caretaker, Grace, this is Artemis, we've been traveling together lately".

The two women turned toward one another and took a good look at each other. Grace did not consider Artemis as a rival in her quest for Naruto's heart, but she still had a feeling that they were going to have a hard time getting along.

"Greetings to you, lady Artemis". Grace paid her respect to the goddess with a little bow.

"Grace the Hellfire", said Artemis in a neutral tone, "What are you doing so far from hell?"

"Protecting my master of course", Grace answered naturally, "Making sure that nothing untoward happens to him".

Artemis shook her head and turned back toward Coeus who was watching them with some sparkle in their eyes.

"Let's do this", said Artemis, "Naruto, Argyll and Grace will be the ones fighting, how do you want to do this?".

Coeus smiled, got up from his throne and extended his arms.

"FIGHT TOURNAMENT!", he bellowed from an almost divine voice.

"This is gonna be good", said Naruto with his own devilish smile.

Yes, I'm back and I'm probably going to disappear again for a while after this. College is an amazingly awful place (if this makes sense) and most of my time is taken by figuring out the rest of my life. But every now and then, I think of these stories and try to still keep them going. Thank you for the ones who are still here.

Lunkman.