Hey there folks welcome back for another Inferni update. Hasn't been long but due in part to the next chapter being caught in my head and requests from some friends to hammer this next one out here we are. I hope you are enjoying the story so far because I am really excited to get to a point where we start having Naruto really doing some fun stuff. That being said I am also looking forward to this chapter because our boy meets the pjo gang. Percy, Annabeth, and Grover have just started their journey but they won't be alone on it for long.

A review by Blank Lord said: I'm glad this was updated again. Ceres' interactions with Naruto are enjoyable to read. I can't wait to see how Naruto deals with meeting his Greek siblings later now that he's going to "flower eaters" hotel

My response: I am really enjoying writing the gods honestly. I feel I will likely be making them somewhat out of character in this story from the original pjo stuff but as long as it fits this story properly and doesn't warp them too much. Plus having more light shine on the Roman aspects is a lot of fun in my opinion. As for Bianca and Nico, I am really excited to get to them they will be having a very different story line for the most part so I am really looking forward to it. Probably one of the moments I most look forward to, along with Hazel and the eventual battles against the titan forces. I have a little something something planned for that.

A review by itzgatt said:Ay bro good job on the chapter. Fucking love seeing you updating this fic. I really like his bond with Ceres, love how she's helping him out. Their interactions are some of my favourite parts when it comes to the story. Definitely hope you do more stuff like that in the future chapters.

I can't wait until the next chapter to see how it will go down with him helping that boy Percy and the others without exposing himself to them. That will be interesting.

My response: I am really liking writing the bond with Ceres. She and her Greek half are both fertility goddesses and motherly in characterization so the idea of her taking the place of a grandmother for Naruto and just running with it seems perfect for me. I love the idea that slowly this makes her and Pluto/Hades come to terms with one another as well. Maybe she starts to see some of what Persephone does and isn't so hostile to her brother. Probably not being as she is a goddess of literal life and he is the opposite of that but we can hope.

If you want to talk with me or perhaps commission me for a story or if you want to talk with a huge selection of other readers and writers of fanfiction follow the links below to join a couple discord servers. Along with that if you are interested in supporting me and perhaps gaining access to some exclusive content and early updates for some stories come find me on at helghywrites.

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To the story.

Part One:Legionary

Arc Two:Questing Westward

Chapter Four:Fickle Gods

The bus stop that he found himself at wasn't exactly packed full of people but there were several would be passengers waiting for the next bus. Among them was the trio that Naruto had been looking for. The leader of the group was unmistakable.

Actually, Naruto was a little confused how the mortals in the area didn't recognize the Greek boy from the posters slapped all over the place. Percy stood out like a sore thumb as far as Naruto was concerned.

At least he stood out far more than the three women sitting in the shadows and glaring daggers toward the trio. The mortals likely didn't even notice them but beyond the faun with Percy and the daughter of Athena taking long sniffs of the air, neither did the demigods.

Naruto figured it was probably best to use that to his advantage and slipped over to the three hags in hiding.

He bit back a smile as they all gasped at him when he approached them. They shared a glance at one another like a shocked trio of cartoon characters before the apparent leader of the little group, Alecto if he recalled, bowed her head slightly followed by the other two thirds of her group.

"Yeah that isn't really necessary. I think we are after the same thing here so we need to have a talk." Naruto said.

"So the Sea spawn does have the Master's Helm." Alecto hissed with apparent glee at being correct.

"No. I'm actually almost certain that none of them do. There is someone else involved. lord Jupiter losing his bolt at the same time as my father loses his helmet is suspicious enough. The fact that the only son of Neptune…or Poseidon I guess is being accused of taking both makes me think someone is trying to play my dad and uncles against one another." Naruto said, causing Alecto to frown.

The Fury clearly had hoped that it would be an easy job to rough up Percy and get the helmet before express mailing Percy's soul along with his comrades to visit Naruto's father. Unfortunately for her, Naruto was making a lot of logical sense. Which meant they were all more or less back to square one on locating the stolen object. No, that wasn't quite true. Just like Naruto had said, someone wanted the son of Poseidon implicated as the thief of such powerful items and there was an obvious reason as to why.

"Someone is trying to spark a war among the Olympians. They are doing a fine job of it so far." Alecto commented.

"Yes. Which is all the more reason I need your support. I have to embed myself with the greeks on their quest." Naruto said, sighing at the wary looks the three of them shared.

"You don't need to worry about me informing them of the split between the gods' two halves. We have bigger problems than that facing us anyway. No doubt that Lord Jupiter is checking in on the quest frequently, even if just because he is feeling tempted to smite them." Naruto said.

"All the more reason for us to leave this task to you…" One of the other Furies stated causing Naruto to glare at her.

"You'll enjoy seeing my father after that won't you?" He asked, causing all three of them to pale at the thought of a displeased Pluto compared to a furious Pluto whose son had been killed.

"What do you want us to do?" Alecto asked.

"That's simple. I just want you to do what you already planned on doing. You're going to get on the bus and plan an attack on the greeks. When you attack though you are going to cause all manner of problems instead and let them slip through with me. You have to make the spectacle big enough to catch the eyes of Olympus though. If we can slip their attention between father, Lady Persephone, and Lady Ceres I'm sure we can avoid their focus until the end of this quest." Naruto explained.

"You believe the one behind this all to be on Olympus?" Alecto asked.

"Not necessarily. Nothing good comes of the gods' attention though. Everything will go much smoother if they can't get an exact lock on our position."

"You are a clever one aren't you. Then again I watched with my sisters as you led your band of damned legionnaires. You know how petty the Olympians can be." Alecto said with a thoughtful expression.

Naruto nodded his head slowly, sour at the memory of the handful of times the gods had involved themselves with his duty surrounding the cursed legionnaires he had led across the western half of the continent. It only ever made things more difficult for him and his fellow demigods.

"The bus is coming soon." One of the other Furies said.

"Good, I'll get on first. I leave the rest to you. I'll put in a good word in my next prayers to my father. Thank you for the help." Naruto said.

"I do like it when demigods are polite and proper. Good luck boy." Alecto said with a toothy smile that didn't exactly make Naruto feel pleased with their help. Still he knew he could rely on their support in this. Anything besides that would lead to them gaining his father's disapproval and none on Olympus cared enough for them to help if they truly gained Pluto's ire.

Naruto left the side of the furies and easily slid into some shadows nearby. With his placement he would be closest to the door out of the three groups of supernaturally touched passengers. As the vehicle rolled in he carefully slipped between a drowsy man in a business suit and a woman wearing headphones who looked annoyed at the rain for ruining her walk.

As the people all took their seats on the bus Naruto was happy to find himself just two seats behind and across the aisle from Percy and his colleagues. He grinned a little at how quickly his greek cousins recognized the threat of Alecto and the other furies as they boarded. Sure the faun with them helped considerably but for his cousin to have been just recently inducted into the real world and already coming to grips with things like this so quickly, it boded well for at least making it a few years longer.

Then again the majority of credit was the daughter of Athena's. Now closer he could get a better look at all three of them and he honestly wished both Percy and the girl had been roman. He wondered if it would help them get along when he led them away in a moment.

Naruto watched as the greeks rapidly took stock of their situation and began searching for a way out. The windows were a no go, the back was blocked. There were only the front doors to the bus and unfortunately for them, the furies had selected the seat directly behind the driver cutting off that route too. Or at least they would have if not planning on letting the greeks slip through and be 'rescued' by Naruto.

The daughter of Athena was quick thinking in her resolution. All but forcing the cap she had been carrying into Percy's hands and demanding he use it. They argued for only a moment but after a sick look spread across his face, Percy slipped the hat on and disappeared from sight.

"Okay." Naruto said as he moved forward to begin his own plan as the Furies approached the remaining two greeks.

Naruto approached quietly before the three furies rounded on the faun and daughter of Athena. They seemed surprised by the disappearance of the third member of the group but played their part well as they began regaining their true forms and harassing the pair of questers.

"Where is it?" Alecto demanded hotly, glancing toward Naruto briefly before focusing back onto the greeks.

The bus had plenty of long shadows to use for Naruto as he passed through the bus without stumbling over the now panicking passengers. The Lincoln Tunnel had lights, but it was underground and dark enough. Almost like a home field advantage for Naruto.

He slipped past the two companions of his target as they were harassed and moved to where he expected the invisible Percy Jackson was at. Or he would have if the entire bus hadn't suddenly jerked to the side slamming everyone into the right side of the vehicle.

Definitely the work of a demigod's attempt at improvisation.

Naruto forced his way through the shaken passengers up to the front of the bus where the driver was fighting for control over the steering wheel with an invisible force. The roman didn't wait and lunged forward toward what looked like thin air only to wrap his arms around a boy that was a little bit older than him but not quite as muscular.

"Jackson, relax. I'm trying to help." He hissed, getting a very confused look from the driver while Percy elbowed him roughly in the gut. "You are going to wreck the bus doing that and kill us!"

"Let go." A voice demanded.

Naruto rolled his eyes and grabbed the break on the bus and gave it a hard yank slamming both himself and his invisible wrestling opponent to the floor in a head. The rest of the passengers were catapulted forward in their own seats and left in groaning piles of mortal annoyance and aches.

Thankfully by now the bus had cleared the tunnel and had begun to barrel over any obstacle between it and a patch of woods that seemed surprisingly fragile compared to the size and momentum of the bus. At least until it had stopped.

For a brief moment Naruto pondered the fact that it had only been about two hours and he had managed to involve himself in just as many car wrecks. Well maybe a bus wreck should have counted as extra.

Pushing the arbitrary thought from his brain he pulled Percy up to his feet. He never let go of the invisible boy once he'd gotten ahold. Now though he could stare his cousin eye to eye. The hat had come loose in an improvised parking job.

"Jackson, I really am here to help you but we have to get out of here now." Naruto demanded, causing the boy's eyes to narrow at him.

"Who are you?" He asked.

"Not a good time." He replied, turning back to see Alecto and her sisters had recovered.

He looked around for a moment to take in the surroundings outside the bus. Trees, and wonderfully thick rain still pouring down mostly. They weren't far from the road but Naruto imagined several dryads were displeased at the moment.

"We have to get off the bus. I can distract the Kindly Ones for a moment, meet me over by…that fallen pine tree." Naruto pointed.

"Who are you?" Percy repeated.

"Get your friends and go, I'll meet you there." Naruto barked, causing the other boy to jolt slightly but remain rooted.

"Come on!" Naruto growled in annoyance before looking back to see that the furies were trying to buy him time by playing up their intimidation factor a bit and cracking their whips about.

"Fau-Err, Satyr! Get the two of them out now, I'll buy you time!" Naruto shouted as he summoned his sword and advanced on the furies.

The other two members of the quest seemed less inclined to look a gift horse in the mouth and sprinted through the mess of disembarking passengers as they fled while Naruto confronted the three furies alone.

Or would have been if they weren't all working together.

"That didn't exactly go as planned." Alecto groused.

"No it did not. Thank you." Naruto said while putting away his sword before heading to the exit of the all but emptied bus.

As he neared the exit though he noticed the yankees baseball cap that had turned Percy invisible on the floor and decided to grab it himself. As he bent down to pick it up though he felt all the hair across his body practically stand on end and reacted just in time to avoid the blast of lightning that blew the bus apart.

Stumbling and falling onto the muddy forest floor beside the three greeks they all turned to look at him rather than the burning bus in shock.

"How did you get there?" The girl demanded.

"I borrowed the hat. One of you really must have pissed off you know who." Naruto quickly replied. It didn't completely remove the narrowed eyes of the two demigods but the faun turned his eyes back to the bus in absolute grief and moaned.

"Our bags!" He complained.

"We shouldn't stay here." Naruto said. He stood up before tossing the hat over to the blonde who seemed to be even more suspicious of him as she pulled the hat tightly toward herself like she was guarding it.

"He's right." Percy said.

"Yeah. Come on." the girl commanded before taking off into the woods followed by Naruto, Percy, and the moping faun.

"Zeus!" Poseidon roared in fury causing the storms around New York to only worsen as he advanced toward his younger brother past the hearth at the center of the room. Apollo, Hephaestus, and Hermes together were only slowing him down.

Thankfully where the brute strength of other gods failed, the gentle touch of some could succeed.

"Calm yourself, brother. Your child and the others escaped unharmed and are no doubt making good time toward their goal." Hestia said as she tried to stop the fighting.

Poseidon stopped his advance but the storm outside remained furious as the sea and sky seemed to clash. Poseidon and Zeus glared one another down before Poseidon scoffed in disgust at his brother.

"Why even allow them on the quest if you plan to simply smite them outside the gates of Camp Half-Blood?" Poseidon demanded as he shook off the holds of his nephews.

"I gave no such quest. It was the oracle. If it was my way, as it should be, your little spawn would just be a scorch mark upon the ground." Zeus huffed.

"Husband, stop this." Hera demanded, causing Zeus to eye her with obvious paranoia and suspicion. The queen sighed as Zeus' mind seemed to fill with all manner of speculated conspiracies that now included her and Poseidon trying to oust him from power.

"Where are they now?" Zeus asked coldly, turning his eyes to his children.

"We don't know father. It seems their mode of transport exploded and in the chaos that followed they slipped our observation. I'm sure we will find them again soon enough." Athen replied, though she seemed happy that the questers had slipped their attention long enough to avoid the focus of Olympus for now. After all, her daughter had nearly been vaporized by her father as well.

"What of the Furies or that…was it a clear sighted boy? That helped the seaspawn?" Zeus asked.

"It looked to me like you blew them all up…brother." Demeter said tensely.

Zeus eyed her suspiciously now as well. He did not like her tone, though he also wasn't sure why she was so hostile toward him. What did she care about Poseidon and Athena's children? Why would she be bothered by him smiting some mortal and the furies?

"I meant, why would Hades have sent them?" He asked with a grumbling tone as he dropped into the throne behind him to largely pout at the others. He felt entirely too vulnerable without his symbol of power at hand. Like he could be assailed by anyone in the room at any time.

"The same reason you wanted to blast my boy the moment you knew of him. He saw a demigod of one of us and thought to cull them. Just like with what's her name a few years ago." Poseidon said, happy to dig at the painful wound of Zeus' daughter Thalia.

Zeus looked ready to attack Poseidon before turning his attention to Apollo and Hermes.

"I want you to-" He began only for Apollo to cut him off.

"No can do, daddy-o." Apollo said before straightening up at the dark look on his father's face.

"Ah-erhm, I mean it's an official quest, straight from the Oracle's mouth. Herm and I aren't able to interfere really." Apollo explained.

Zeus rolled his eyes at that. Just like all of his kin, they only really followed the letter of the laws when it suited them somehow. He supposed he did the same. Still he couldn't just order them to violate the ancient laws or involve themselves with a quest. Even he knew that doing as he had a moment ago had been a breach in judgment and he shouldn't have tried to toast the little seaspawn.

No doubt Athena was angry with him now too. The sight of her standing beside his brother and not fighting or making little insults toward one another would have had him happy for some peace normally. Right now it just reminded him he had lost himself to his paranoia and rage yet again.

The soft hand of his wife slipping into his grasp calmed him slightly as his eyes turned to her. She smiled at him and gave that age old knowing look that seared his soul. Few knew him as well as she. Knew his failings and at times self loathing.

"Then the questers are beyond our observation for now. Perhaps we will pick up their trail again soon. We know only they are headed west for now so we will keep our eyes and ears open. Yes?" He declared getting quiet acknowledgements around the room barring from Athena and Poseidon. They didn't refute him but simply stared up at him before leaving with his dismissal of the room.

Poseidon stayed a bit longer than Athena as he glared up at the King of Olympus.

Zeus stared back until his older brother finally left. No doubt returning to the sea. It was for the best that he did. Even if Zeus could acknowledge privately that he had slipped, he would not be apologizing to Poseidon now or ever.

The group of demigods didn't fully stop fleeing from the bus for quite some time. Even when they made to catch their breath they kept walking. By the time they really did stop to rest, they were all exhausted and frustratingly enough, lacking the vast majority of their supplies.

"Here, you left your stuff on the bus so you can have some of my water…just don;t backwash into it." Naruto said as he let the others take hefty gulps of the slightly cooler than room temperature water.

"Thanks." Percy said between gasps as he quickly recovered from their run.

The blonde nodded her thanks as well but she continued to eye the stranger to their group with a mix of wariness and curiosity. The faun though, he could smell some of what identified the difference between different demigods. He knew something odd was going on, but being the champion of Ceres had it's benefits and Naruto had already practiced a rough idea of what he would claim as his backstory until he and the greeks went their separate ways.

"Why did you help us?" The girl asked.

Naruto played up an offended expression, getting Percy to shoot a harsh look her way. It didn't phase her in the slightest though. That, he rather liked about her.

"I dreamed that I was supposed to." Technically not a lie really. Just far from the truth and leaving out lots of details.

All three of the greeks paused at that. They shared some looks before the daughter of Athena once more spoke while stepping forward toward him.

"So you just followed a dream that said come get on a bus and fight monsters to help strangers?" She asked suspiciously.

"Well not exactly. I mean I know what you are. I know what we are. Not all of us live in your camp." Naruto shot back.

"What?" The faun asked in a bit of a shock.

"Yeah, turns out the folks upstairs have even more offspring than they care to worry about or whatever. Sometimes we meet one another, but really we all just try to survive." Naruto explained with a shrug.

Again it wasn't exactly a lie. There were demigods that braved the ranges between the two safe zones. They typically lived much shorter lives but they did exist. A few even formed tiny communities dotted across the continent. Mixed with clear sighted mortals usually they were moderately safe places to grow up as a demigod away from the lifestyle of the legion…and evidently the lifestyle of camp half blood.

Too bad most usually caught the eye of the gods who had a preference for the clear sighted and those who already had some amount of godly blood in them. A new demigod in the midst of a community could tip it over just enough to become the target of monsters beyond the normal smaller scale of issues they dealt with. Meaning of course that these communities were almost always temporary.

It worked well enough for a cover for now.

"That's not possible. The only safe place is camp." The blonde argued, though she seemed more like she was convincing herself.

"Lots of things are possible. Doesn't mean they work well. Anyway, I'm Naruto by the way." He finally introduced himself.

"Oh, I'm Percy and this is Annabeth and Gover." He explained.

"Right, I've seen your wanted posters." Naruto said with a smirk.

It slipped away at the upset look on Percy's face. Naruto mentally kicked himself, recalling that the other boy had only just lost his mother and was wanted for involvement in her disappearance. That was a really tough pill to swallow.

"Who is your parent?" Annabeth asked.

"Huh?" Naruto smartly retorted as his brain booted back up from thoughts on what happened to Percy's mom.

"Your godly parent, who is it?" She asked,

"Oh…couldn't say even if I wanted to. Not a clue, well I have a short list on who it might be I guess, but it's not like they just claim you is it?" Naruto asked, knowing full well that in the camps they most certainly did just that.

"R-right." Annabeth said, looking like she was trying to swallow something sour.

"Oh, no camp no cla-" Percy began only for Annabeth to stomp on his foot.

Naruto made sure to play up the clueless angle a bit before trudging forward through the muck along the river that they had inadvertently been following. The others shared a look, one he just caught in his peripheral but couldn't really discern before joining alongside him.

"So your dreams lead you onto that bus to help us and you just dove into help us despite the kindly ones, all three of the kindly ones, being after us?" Grover asked.

"Well yeah. My dreams have told me lots of stuff. Led me all over the country too. I'm still here so that counts for something." Naruto shrugged.

The others nodded slowly. Annabeth continued to keep her eyes on him but the suspicion was already replaced by curiosity. That was good and bad, but at least they seemed willing to trust him for now. That would be helpful.

"Pretty brave of you to join in knowing that though." Annabeth gave him a nod. About as close to a smile as he had seen her manage so far, and some respect in her eyes.

Percy seemed a little more open with that line of thought.

"You held them off while we ran too. That was pretty gutsy. How did you even get away from them?"

"Her hat." Naruto nodded toward the blonde girl. "Pretty sure it saved my life, but I gotta say I don't really know if I would have been brave enough to step in if I knew the big man upstairs was trying to blow you all up. What did you do to make him so mad?" Naruto asked.

The questers exchanged looks with Grover looking increasingly nervous while both Percy and Annabeth seemed more resigned than anything.

"He thinks we stole his lightning bolt." Percy bounty replied, getting a roll of Annabeth's gray eyes.

"His lightning bolt? But the bus…" He trailed off. His mind just went to the fact that Alecto and the others had been vaporized by that blast and would be reforming as he spoke. They probably wouldn't be his biggest fans. He would need to find a way to make it up to them for lending him a hand and getting caught in the crossfire of the gods.

"That was more like him pointing a finger and saying bang." Grover replied somewhere between a laugh and a sob.

"You really pissed him off then. Why did you take it?" He asked, knowing they didn't have it.

"We didn't. I didn't. I didn't even know the gods were real or anything until like a week ago. Or was it shorter than that. Whatever I just learned about all this stuff." Percy defended.

"And already accused of stealing from the King?" Naruto asked.

"More like accused because I am the son of Poseidon. Maybe if I was…I dunno any of the others, it would be fine." He scoffed in annoyance.

The others sent Percy some pitying looks that the boy ignored. Still they continued on in silence from there. Barring of course the squelching of their shoes in the mud and rainwater, as well as the occasional grumble of their very empty stomachs. Naruto recognized that they needed a place to get in out of the rain and find some food soon. They had a ridiculously long ways to go before they were done and already things were pretty hard on them.

Oddly enough, almost as soon as that though passed through his mind the smell of food hit his nose. It was a huge improvement over the smell of polluted river and rancid mud. It didn't do much to stop the pain in his belly from hunger though.

"Huh, smells so good." Naruto said suddenly as he felt almost drowsy and half starved as the scent became stronger.

"Yeah. Hey what does that say?" Percy asked, pointing at a neon sign on a building ahead.

"I have no idea. Smells like food that way though." Annabeth replied.

"Wait…" Grover began.

"Something is weird…but I am so hungry. Need to restock our provisions." Naruto cut him off as he and the other two demigods began crossing the street.

"Wait, you guys. What kind of food would they even have at…Aunty Em's Garden Gnome Emporium?" Grover asked, getting more worried.

"Burgers?" Percy asked.

"Fries?" Annabeth nodded.

"Literally anything hot and filling?" Naruto tacked on.

"Amen." Both Percy and Annabeth agreed.

The door was already opening for them once they had made it up the driveway and a woman covered head to toe in cloth was stepping out to greet them.

And that is that. Shortish chapter I know, but I plan on the next one covering at least up to the adventures in St. Louis.

Anyway

Till Next Time