NPU4: Battle of the Labyrinth
Chapter 3
Here you all go, another chapter!
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Naruto have trouble sleeping that night, too worried for his brother after what he was told by his sister and what he saw in the dream. Still, whoever that person was, he was make them suffer in Hades.
So it was no surprise that Naruto was awake when he heard the ruckus in camp early that morning. Deciding he would not get any more sleep, Naruto got up to see what the problem was. Walking out into the cold morning air, Naruto saw campers who many used bow and arrow, Chiron, and Quintus all rush to the borders of the camp.
"Lee!" Naruto shouted as he caught up to the leader of the Apollo cabin.
"Naruto." Lee greeted in a rushed fashion. "What are you doing here?"
"I could ask the same, but the heck is going on?" Naruto asked.
"What usually goes on around here lately." Lee stated. "Trouble at the camp borders."
Naruto grumbled as he followed the son of Apollo to the site of the disturbance. When they got there they saw a fairly large creature that Naruto knew to be an Aethiopian drakon. At lot of the campers where freaking out about it and other just gulped, hoping this creature would not be able to break their magical borders.
I guess you would freak out too if you saw a thirty feet long serpent with rows of sharp teeth, bright green terrifying eyes stare at you like you were a meal if it could break through the borders.
"Archers! Open fire! Send that thing away from us!" Lee ordered out loud. Lee must have been a pretty good archer to able to command them all like that because once he ordered them to do it, all the archers as one shot a salvo of arrows at it, some hit their mark and lodging themselves in its armor while others missed horribly. Even Zoe followed the order.
However, it had its intended result. It wounded the creature and it roared out in rage. Most figured that would happen, but other hoped that the fire of arrows would scare in the creature away for a time.
That was not the case. It just kept glaring at them, looking for a way in. That was until it had Naruto in its sights and roared fairly loudly and charged the borders, only for them to repel it like usual.
Naruto nodded to himself and said, "Let me handle this, I have a new untested jutsu I want to try out. It may not be finished yet, but I have a feeling the first part will do enough to drive this thing away."
"Are you sure?" Chiron asked as he came up to them.
"Yeah, now is the best time." Naruto said as he took out his fox blade known as Fear and threw it into the air before doing hand signs. "You guys might want to spread out a bit." Naruto told the campers who were watching the floating blade, along with the beast.
They did as they were told and just into time too. "Hellfire Style: Fear's Roar!" Naruto shouted as the blade glowed darkly before it burst into a torrent of black flames and formed into a giant nine tailed fox with flaming black fur.
All the camper along with Chiron and Quintus all stare in shock that a magical weapon like so many others and yet unique in its own way was able to be used in a jutsu like that. And it was a good thing that they did spread out because the flaming creature took a fair amount of space.
The two creatures stared at one another because the recreated Kyuubi no Kitsune let out a massive roar that created a fair amount of wind. The roar was just enough the scare the creature away for the time being and when it was done, the giant flaming creature dissipated until it was back sword form and it hit the ground next to a panting Naruto.
"Naruto! Are you ok?" Zoe asked as she help him to his feet.
"Yeah, just gotta work on the chakra output on that one…..ugh." Naruto groan. "Now I really need food." That statement made a lot of people sweatdrop.
"My word, what did you plan to do with such a technique?!" Chiron asked, Quintus nodding to the question, wondering about it himself.
"An ultimate defense and attack...a sort of last resort in case we ever do go to war." Naruto replied.
"Ok, I feel a lot safer with now if we go to war with Luke." Lee said with a big smile.
"Thanks….now come on, let's go get something to eat, I am starving!"
XXX
"It's still out there," Lee warned the rest of the camp, including a now awake Percy Jackson, during announcements. "Twentyarrows in its hide, and we just made it mad. The thing was thirty feet long and bright green. It's eyes—" he shuddered. "I am just glad Naruto used that technique of his to scare it away for the time being."
"You and Naruto did well, Lee," Chiron patted him on the shoulder. "Everyone stay alert, but stay calm. This has happened before."
"Aye," Quintus said from the head table. "And it will happen again. More and more frequently."
The campers murmured among themselves.
Everyone knew the rumors: Luke and his army of monsters were planning an invasion of the camp. Most of the kids expected it to happen this summer, but no one knew how or when. It didn't help that their attendance was down. They only had about eighty campers. Three years ago, when the duo started, there had been more than a hundred. Some had died. Some had joined Luke. Some had just disappeared.
"This is a good reason for new war games, "Quintus continued, a glint in his eyes. "We'll see how you all do with that tonight."
"Yes…" Chiron said. "Well, enough announcements. Let us bless this meal and eat." He raised his goblet. "To the gods."
They all raised their glasses and repeated the blessing.
Tyson and Percy took their plates to the bronze brazier and scraped a portion of their food into the flames. Percy hoped the gods liked raisin toast and Fruit Loops.
"Poseidon," Percy said. Then he whispered, "Help me and Naruto with Nico, and Luke, and Grover's problem…"
The boy stood there a for a small time, thinking on all his other troubles that he could speak about, but in the end, he decided to keep quiet and left.
Naruto came up next and add in some French Toast. One of the best foods this world had. Ironically, both Hades and Aphrodite liked the food as well to an extent. "Hey dad….mom." He started, referring to both the of the previously mentioned Olympians. He remembered not to call Aphrodite grandma, so he was off to a great start.
"I know that you guy are extremely busy with the upcoming war and all, but I need it some guidance on how to save Nico from himself…and that ghost, whoever it may be. Also, please stay safe."
With his piece said, Naruto left to go to the Aphrodite table where he sat next to Silena. "Hey, Naruto. You going to be ok? You look pretty exhausted from using that technique from earlier." Silena asked, worry about her boyfriend.
"Yeah, I'll be fine. I should have tested it out more before using it. Ugh, it just took so much chakra."
"Oh, poor baby!" Silena replied with a worrying smile as she hugged him.
Zoe walked up next to them and said, "Naruto, we need to talk to Percy and Grover with Annabeth."
"Is it about the Labyrinth?" Naruto asked.
"I would assume so." She replied and shivered a bit. No one really enjoyed that place and after Clarisse came back with that Chris kid, she really didn't want to go.
"Alright, I'll meet you there. I want to see how Clarisse is holding up." Naruto replied, making the girl nod.
"I…I'll meet you there too." Silena replied and seeing their confused looks, she said, "I think I need to get more involved."
"Fair enough." Zoe said before making her way to Percy's table with Silena.
Naruto got up and walked over to the Ares Table. "Hey, how are you holding up."
Clarisse smiled as she looked at him. "A lot better now, but I do still get nightmares of the place." Here gaze then went to the gathering at Percy's table and sighed. "I know that you are planning to with them to the Labyrinth and I wish you wouldn't, but i know you will just to keep them safe."
"Of course I would. "Naruto replied with a soft smile. "They are my friends after all."
Clarisse smirked. "Yeah, I know, even with that punk." She sobered up and said, "Don't underestimate that place…it is hell, especially for us battle minded people." At that, all the children of Ares shivered from the stories she had told them about that horror of a place.
"I won't and if I go, I promise I will come back." Naruto stated.
"You'd better." Clarisse declared as she then got up and kissed him. When the kiss reluctantly ended, Naruto walked over to the Poseidon Table, where all the stares were directed. People were inwardly smirking at Percy and Annabeth, wondering when those two were going to be together.
However, while they were used to Naruto sitting at the Aphrodite Table due to his blood. So they were a little iffy when not just Annabeth decided to sit with Percy and Grover. Now in addition to Annabeth, three more people sat with them. That included Naruto, Zoe, and Silena.
"Yeah," Annabeth said, nodding to Naruto as he sat down with them. "Last summer he just appeared in Phoenix, Arizona, near Clarisse's mom's house."
Yeah, Naruto quickly realized they were not just talking about the Labyrinth, but Chris as well.
"What do you mean he just appeared?" Percy asked.
"He was wandering around the desert, in a hundred and twenty degrees, in full Greek armor, babbling about string."
"String?"
"He'd been driven completely insane. Clarisse brought him back to her mom's house so the mortals wouldn't institutionalize him. She tried to nurse him back to health. Chiron came out and interviewed him, but it wasn't much good. The only thing they got out of him: Luke's men have been exploring the Labyrinth."
"Thankfully Mr. D had still be around." Naruto replied. "He cured Chris of his insanity, but it had the affect of messing with his memories a bit."
"Okay," Percy asked, shivering a bit at the thought of his memories being messed with. "Why were they exploring the Labyrinth?"
"We weren't sure," Annabeth said. "That's why Clarisse went on a scouting expedition. Chiron kept things hushed up because he didn't want anyone panicking. He got me involved because…well, the Labyrinth has always been one of my favorite subjects. The architecture involved—" Her expression turned a little dreamy. "The builder, Daedalus, was a genius. But the point is, the Labyrinth has entrances everywhere. If Luke could figure out how to navigate it, he could move his army around with incredible speed."
"Except it's a maze, right?" Percy asked.
"Full of horrible traps," Grover agreed. "Dead ends. Illusions. Psychotic goat-killing monsters."
"But not if you had Ariadne's string," Naruto explained, getting a nod from Annabeth. "In the old days, Ariadne's string guided Theseus out of the maze. It was a navigation instrument of some kind, invented by Daedalus. And Chris Rodriguez was mumbling about string."
"So Luke is trying to find Ariadne's string," Percy said. "Why? What's he
planning?"
Annabeth shook her head. "I don't know. I thought maybe he wanted to invade camp through the maze, but that doesn't make any sense. The closest entrances Clarisse found were in Manhattan, which wouldn't help Luke get past our borders. Clarisse explored a little way into the tunnels, but…it was very dangerous. She had some close calls. I researched everything I could find about Daedalus. I'm afraid it didn't help much. I don't understand exactly what Luke's planning, but I do know this: the Labyrinth might be the key to Grover's problem."
Percy blinked. "You think Pan is underground?"
"You know, that would make sense." Naruto replied.
Grover shuddered. "Satyrs hate going underground. No searcher would try going in that place. No flowers. No sunshine. No coffee shops!"
"But," Annabeth said, "the Labyrinth can lead you almost anywhere. It reads your thoughts. It was designed to fool you, trick you and kill you; but if you can make the Labyrinth work for you—"
"It could lead you to the wild god," Percy deduced.
"I can't do it." Grover hugged his stomach. "Just thinking about it makes me want to throw up my silverware."
"Grover, it may be your last chance," Annabeth said. "The council is serious. One week or you learn to tap dance!"
"Think about it Grover." Naruto demanded. "If you give up on this lead like so many other Satyrs. Would you doom your people to search endlessly in other place, or will you be a hero to your own people by taking this risk with us, if we go, to find the Wild God?"
Over at the head table, Quintus cleared his throat. That was his way of telling them they need to go back to their own table just in case.
"Think about it Grover." Naruto replied as he and Silena got up to leave and head back to their table, ignoring the stares.
"We'll talk later," Annabeth squeezed Percy's arm a little too hard. "Convince him some more, will you?" She returned to the Athena table, ignoring all the people who were staring at her as well.
"So, do you think Grover will do it?" Silena asked Zoe as she walked next to them. Zoe case in the table situation was different. It was so rare for the Hunters to come to camp that their table was pretty old…and lonely. So she asked Naruto if it was alright to join him the Aphrodite Table and the blond naturally didn't have a problem with it. Still, they prayed to the Goddess of Love to not hurt Zoe from sitting there and it seems that she was OK with it.
"I am unsure, but I feel that if he used his persistence that he used to make me and the other Hunters happy when they were here, then he could succeed." Zoe replied.
"That is true, he just needs the right kick in the pants." Naruto replied with a smirk, making the girls giggle.
XXX
Naruto knew that they were going to be doing something tonight. That was the vibe he was getting from Quintus anyway, so he felt that he needed to do this sooner than later.
Walking to the arena, Naruto saw that Clarisse was helping Quintus move some heavy looking boxes.
"Hey Quintus, can I borrow Clarisse for a few minutes." The blond asked.
Quintus raised an eyebrow and shrugged. "Sure, just don't keep her for too long."
"What do ya need, Naruto." Clarisse asked as she wiped the sweat off her forehead.
"I need to give you this weapon I have been making. The Spear of Destiny." Naruto replied as he gave it to her in the form of a necklace.
"Now that is awesome." Clarisse replied with a smirk. "You modeled it after the game version of it?"
"You know it." Naruto replied happily.
"You are such a great boyfriend." She replied before she pulled him in a for a tongue filled kiss.
When they broke apart, Naruto saw Quintus looking at them in amusement. "Heh, I better let you get back to work."
"I guess so." Clarisse replied before she gave him another small kiss and left to do the work Quintus needed down.
XXX
That night after dinner, Quintus had the campers suit up in combat armor like they were getting ready for capture the flag, but the mood among the campers was a lot more serious. Sometime during the day the crates in the arena had disappeared, and Percy had a feeling whatever was in them had been emptied into the woods. He looked to Naruto to see the boy give him a nod.
"Right," Quintus said, standing on the head dining table. "Gather 'round." He was dressed in black leather and bronze. In the torchlight, his gray hair made him look like a ghost. Mrs. O'Leary bounded happily around him, foraging for dinner scraps with the little Tear.
"You will be in teams of two," Quintus announced. When everybody started talking and trying to grab their friends, he yelled: "Which have already been chosen!"
"AWWWWW!" everybody complained.
"Your goal is simple: collect the gold laurels without dying. The wreath is wrapped in a silk package, tied to the back of one of the monsters. There are six monsters. Each has a silk package. Only one holds the laurels. You must find the wreath before the other teams. And, of course…you will have to slay the monster to get it, and stay alive."
The crowd started murmuring excitedly. The task sounded pretty straightforward. Hey, they'd all slain monsters before. That's what they trained for.
"I will now announce your partners," Quintus said. "There will be no trading. No switching. No complaining."
"Aroooof!" Mrs. O'Leary buried her face in a plate of pizza. Tear took a niff and walked off in search of something else, obviously not a fan of Pizza.
Quintus produced a big scroll and started reading off names. Beckendorf would be with Silena Beauregard, which Beckendorf looked pretty happy about since he knew she was not like the other children of Aphrodite. Which basically meant that he was NOT useless. He looked over to Naruto and nodded to the boy, silently telling him that he would keep her safe. The Stoll brothers, Travis and Connor, would be together. No surprise. They did everything together. Clarisse was with Lee Fletcher from the Apollo cabin—melee and ranged combat combined, they would be a tough combo to beat. Quintus kept rattling off the names until he said, "Percy Jackson with Annabeth Chase."
"Nice!" Percy replied, grinning at Annebeth.
"Your armor is crooked" was her only comment, and she redid his straps for him.
"Grover Underwood," Quintus said, "with Tyson."
Grover just about jumped out of his goat fur. "What? B-but—"
"No, no," Tyson whimpered. "Must be a mistake. Goat boy—"
"No complaining!" Quintus ordered. "Get with your partner. You have two minutes to prepare!" He then went back to his list to call out the last two names. "Naruto and Zoe are a team." That was another powerhouse team. A ninja and a Hunter. Now that made a lot of the campers nervous.
"We shall breeze through this easily." Zoe declared.
"Got that right!" Naruto cheered.
XXX
It had been half an hour and the team of Naruto and Zoe had found squat! So they leisurely walked through the forest at a nice pace but while they were being lazy, they were also on guard in case anything happened.
They had heard the Stroll brothers pass by multiple times, tripping over themselves and cursing up a storm. It was pretty ironic that those two were children of Hermes when they couldn't be stealthy. Another reason they never won their prank war with him.
Soon, the duo made their way to where Nico and done his earth fissure act and then left in anger. "Is this the spot where you last saw him?" Zoe asked.
"Yeah, but the odd thing was, I saw an Iris Message last night that showed he was fine, but he was being led by a ghost and trying to revive the dead it would seem."
"That is not good." Zoe replied, having seen that situation before.
"No, it is not and that is why I need to get into the Labyrinth to search for him." Naruto replied, making Zoe shiver.
"While I agree with you, you still need to get a quest for that. Hopefully something will happen that will push Chiron into acting." Zoe said.
"Yeah…" Naruto replied before they went back to back when they heard a scuttling noise like a giant bug monster was near them. They nodded to each other and figured it was a large Scorpion.
They weren't far off because in the next moment, one came bursting onto the scene in a rather comical sight. The Stroll Brothers were fighting it and they were both latched onto its tail as it thrashed about.
They didn't get a chance to comment on this as four more scorpions rushed onto the scene. One of them was locked in combat with Clarisse as she used her new spear against it while arrows rain down from the nearby trees.
The other three locked on Naruto and Zoe and rushed them with their leader striking out first.
Acting quickly, Naruto created one of his true shadow clones to help Zoe into the trees to give her a better vantage point with which to shoot her enemies down. With that quickly done, Naruto bent backwards as a tail tried to impale him. Thankfully, it just struck his clone, distracting it for just a few moments.
It was all Naruto needed as he swung both is blade upwards in a scissor cut and slashed off the dangerous part the scorpion. It squealed in agony, as it back up, catching everyone's attention. The Stroll Brothers were roughly thrown over to Naruto's area and almost landed on the Son of Hades.
The other scorpion that was fighting Clarisse somehow corralled her to where the other were as well, leaving them to fight off five large scorpion monsters. The other camper must have been fight on one of their own among the other monsters in the forest.
"Oh this is not good." Travis said as he readied himself to fight these creatures with his campmates.
"Got any plans Naruto?" Clarisse asked.
"Why are you asking me?" Naruto asked.
"Because you are the prank master here. Surely you could think up a plan to kill these things." Conner replied.
"Fair enough….and don't call me surely." Naruto replied, using the airplane joke to calm them down a bit. Looking around, he saw Beckendorf and Silena ready to help them if need be. With the smithy's hammer and Silena daggers, this could work.
"Ok, Strolls, working on taking down the one I injured as its tail won't be of much use. Lee and Zoe from the trees will corral one of them over to Beckendorf and Silena for them to finish off." Naruto ordered, getting nods from them. That just left him and Clarisse to fight off the last three scorpions. "Clarisse, let's show the last three monsters why you don't mess with a Ninja of Death and a Daughter of Ares."
"Right!" they all cheered before going off to do their parts in the grand plan.
Clarisse and Naruto rushed the first one to charge at them and it stabbed its tail at them. Clarisse ducked under the strike and it went on to stab Naruto, who turned out to be a clone. The War Girl followed up by stabbed the tail with her new spear.
It roared out in pain as it tried to snap her in half with one of it claws. She waited until the right moment and then jumped onto the claw before pushing off and taking out a sword to slice off the tail before discarding that to stab the spear into the scorpion's skull, killing it.
Naruto was fighting off another with both his blade rapidly blocking the claws and tail as best he could. When he found an opening, he created a clone, which took out some of its legs.
It backed up at this point and with Naruto's danger sense going in high gear, he replaced himself with the clone. It was taken out a second later by the tail of the other scorpion. Naruto found himself surround on both sides by the last two scorpions.
As the two raised their tailed to stab him, he saw Clarisse running to help him. He gave her a disarming smile and she stopped. That meant he was prepared, but it was still nerve racking seeing the one you love in that situation. Especially when the tails struck out rapidly going through, signifying that he was once more a clone. But the funny thing about all this was the fact the tail kept on going and stabbed each other in the face, disorienting them long enough for Naruto to shout, "NOW!"
Deciding to knock off his head later for making her worry for nothing, she took the opportunity to stab one in the skull like she did the other and killing it while Naruto use a wind powered sword to run through the beast, cutting it in half.
Looking to the others, he saw that they finished as well and that Zoe and Lee had made it back down the ground and were happy that it was over. Clarisse took this opportunity to take the golden laurels off one of the scorpions corpses, basically declaring herself the winner while she and handed the silk bags tot Naruto and the other teams.
"Well then." Naruto replied with a smile. "That went well."
"Hell yeah it did!" Travis shouted with glee.
"What now?" Lee asked.
"We must find Chiron and the others." Zoe declared before the eight campers left the area with Charles complimenting Naruto on his battle plan, which made Clarisse agree.
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Ok, I am ending that right there. I am sorry for the stupidly longtime it took to update this and I have an excuse. Blame Pokemon X and reason Percy and Annabeth didn't fight alongside them was because they found the entrance the Labyrinth...remember?
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