Reading: Sun's Heir, Death's Guardian II: A Hero's Peril
XVII
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Percy Jackson and the Olympians.
Naruto's eyes were wide as he fell to his back, going into shock from the impalement of Sasuke's attack. His mind was reeling in confusion, fear and slow acceptance of the truth. Pan was either dead or on the verge of it.
"Verge." Nico frowned, even though he just met him once, the death boy did like the guy.
Naruto knew this for a fact, because of Kyubi's own deal with the near-Faded God. The fox agreed to take the form of Pan's shield if it would conceal his power from the Gods, not wanting to be used by someone he held no respect for,
The gods looked intrigued by this fact, so the fox was far more powerful then he let on?
something only two people had obtained: The Sage of Six Paths and Naruto Uzumaki (due to a battle shared in Hades).
"So he would only listen to two mortals, hm?" Zeus mused at the thought.
With the shield gone though . . .
"Duckbutt goofed," Leo whistled.
"Big time," was Percy's follow up statement.
Sasuke had to raise his arm to shield himself as a wave of pure hatred and power coursed over him. His eyes wide in disbelief as the red energy bubbled from the shattered shield on the pierced wrist of his onetime friend. A humanoid wearing a fox-like ANBU mask formed in front of him, eyes very similar to his own save for the black sclera and the thin black slit that was the entities' pupil. It started to get larger and larger, the mask shattering and a fox-like form coming to it, tails at the end becoming longer and multiple in number.
Kyubi no Kitsune! Thought Sasuke in realization as he watched the bane of his former village reform,
"The leaf's bane will rise." Apollo recited the prophecy.
the forced servant of Madara roaring as it became large enough to rival mountains in size.
"So want one." Ares gushed with a blood thirsty smile. Man, what he could do with something like that!
He knew the beast was large from his last encounter with it, but this . . . This was very unexpected. No wonder Madara had said to keep the blond idiot alive; Naruto had known all along where the biju hid. Once again, he was surprised by the actions of his rival.
"Foolish ningen!" Kyubi shouted at him with a hint of excitement in his voice. "You do not realize what you have done!"
"Of course not. mortals tend not to." Mr. D sneered, he hated mortals like this kid the most, all woe is me and such.
"With your power, I will right the wrongs done to my clan," said Sasuke, his eyes morphing into what was known as the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan (Kaleidoscope Copy Wheel Eye), black returning to his eye until a unique atom-shape remained. The fusion of his elder brother's eye with his own had staved off the curse of blindness with prolonged use. It had also given him many abilities.
"Oh, listen to him sounding so self-righteous." Artemis rolled her eyes, foolish man. "You'd think he was a child of Nemesis."
"You nor any other shall ever use my power without my permission!" said Kyubi. A dark fox-like grin spread across his muzzle as the black portions of its face turned a deep blue, runes of a foreign language appearing across its body in the same color while the symbol of Omega appeared on its forehead. "I would kill you, but that honor belongs to the Kit. I have my own duty to attend to. This will be the last that we meet, Uchiha. Farewell."
"Oh thank Us." The sun god breathed out, so his kid was still kicking? Good, very good.
"Tsukuyomi!" Sasuke cried out in a last ditch attempt to capture the fox in his gaze. The eyes of the fox met his, but as he expected, nothing came of it. In the Last Uchiha's opinion, it was worth a shot.
"Who has eye powers? Seriously, how stupid." Apollo snorted.
"Medusa."
"Point to you Hermes. Even though that's both Poseidon and Athena's fault." The sun god mused.
"My fault?" Athena said angrily.
"Yeah, you could have just vaporized her, but no, you had to make her a monster. It's Arachne all over again, and now your kids are scared of spiders, whose fault is that?"
Athena had nothing to say.
"Have fun," said Kyubi. The giant fox slowly dissolved into a large red mist before Sasuke's eyes, making the Uchiha look around for any sort of reemergence, missing the small sliver of chakra that went into Naruto's ear before dispersing with the rest of the mist. With a disappointed snort, Sasuke deactivated his eyes and looked at his former ally's body with a scowl.
"Some fight," said Sasuke. He scoffed and turned around, sheathing his sword and walking away. "I guess once a loser always a loser."
"About eat them words buddy," Ares gave a cold laugh, come on kid, show him what you did to Atlas. He wanted the real fight, not this kid gloves BS!
The words hit Naruto's ears and his hand twitched. He made a struggling grunt, reaching up with his injured arm's hand to press it against the hole in his chest.
That's the second time that's happened, thought Naruto in annoyance.
"It's never a good feeling," Percy said with sarcasm, since yeah, you always get up after a hole in your chest.
So am I right to assume you're going to kick his ass? Helios asked.
"About time he does so." Hermes smirked.
"Damn straight," said Naruto softly. His words had Sasuke stopping in his tracks and turning to face the blond.
"Wow, he doesn't even double tap? Loser."
Athena rolled her eyes at her war brother. Still, it was indeed a foolish move with a boy who had healing powers.
Naruto lowered his hand as he pushed himself to sit up a bit, looking at the hole going through his wrist and gritting his teeth. The sun seemed to shine brighter as it, and the hole in his chest, slowly seared itself shut as it regenerated.
"You're welcome!"
"Be quiet Apollo." Artemis drawled, not wanting to hear his cheering.
Now once again whole, Naruto got back to his feet, his eyes locking on Sasuke.
"Let's try this again," said Naruto with a scowl on his face, his left hand's fingers igniting with golden flames.
"Epic power sequence is a go!" Leo smiled out as the other kids were giddy for the fight.
Sasuke watched as Naruto slowly combusted, going from his left hand to his arm, spreading across his chest and down his body to his legs. The strange dōjutsu changed from blue eyes with golden pupils into solid golden orbs with blue sun-shaped pupils glaring at the Uchiha. Runes similar to the ones that spread across the Kyubi's body spread from Naruto's chest to his arms and down his legs.
"God Mode, initiated." Apollo said in a deep mechanical voice, getting thumbs up from the smith god and his son.
Naruto looked down at the sword on the ground, the cracked and shattered ruby on the pommel once housed his former tenant's soul resembled how he felt: broken. For a long time the Kyubi was a part of Naruto and he felt wrong walking around without the giant fuzzball in his gut.
"He missed his curse?" Annabeth asked, not understanding why he would want something that hurt him so much as a child.
That had resulted in him seeking out the titanic chakra beast in the Underworld before he returned to the realm of the living. He desired that forced companionship, the urgency to feel whole once more led to the fight between him and the Fox (which he barely won).
"So even after death, he wanted as much things as he had from his first body." Hades mused, a bit selfish, but understandable in the end.
And he had to go and take that from me, Naruto thought as his gaze went back to his friend.
"Last straw?" Hazel asked as Frank nodded.
"No doubt."
He crouched down and took the sword into his hand, causing it to change into a blade similar to that of what was called a kopis, a Greek sword that curved forward and was about thirty-six inches in length from the tip of the blade to the pommel.
"Or the 'bad guy' sword back in the day." Ares pouted, it was an awesome weapon, and those stupid mortals just had to label it.
Naruto smirked, thinking of the origin of the sword: the Kyubi's Fang. This change called for a name.
"You will be blinded by my blade's brilliance," said Naruto, his voice echoed by Helios'.
"Kinda lame." Hermes said in a wish washy tone.
"No way! That was awesome." Apollo argued.
"Of course you would say that." The messenger god rolled his eyes.
He lifted the blade by its handle, which changed slightly to move the guard from the back to go over his fingers. "Sasuke of the clan Uchiha, beware of the Eclipse."
"Solar or lunar?" Thalia asked jokingly, getting said gods to look at each other.
"Lunar/Solar." Apollo and Artemis said in unison, and glared at one another.
"He's my kid, Arte."
"He has more respect for me, Apollo."
"…Low blow, Arte."
"Tch, if you want to make an impression dobe just do something and don't talk about it," said Sasuke, his hand pulling his own sword out once again.
"Gladly," said Naruto. He vanished in another flash of yellow and reappeared a foot away. Eclipse was reared back and prepared to slash, making Sasuke bring his own sword up. Naruto's blade dug into Sasuke's, the stygian iron of the Underworld mixed with the chakra channeling properties of the biju's contributing base easily began cutting through the false grass cutter.
"Where do I get something like that?" Jason asked as Hera frowned.
"You have a blade, Jason."
The wind boy nodded, but inwardly pouted, wanting something cool like that.
The Uchiha, when he saw this, felt his eyes widen.
What is-?
"Duckbutt pwnage." Leo whistled as Nico cheered excitably.
"Nothing can withstand the power of an Eclipse," said Naruto informatively. "Not even your false Kusanagi."
"For I hold the Force on my side." Leo said in an old wise tone.
"B for effort kid." Apollo told him.
"Better then what I got in school." The pyro shrugged.
Sasuke's eyes narrowed before flickering back into the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan again. He closed his left eye and widened the right, making Naruto pause in confusion. "Amaterasu!"
A torrent of pitch black flames shot out from Sasuke's eye into Naruto's face at point blank, making Naruto stumble back and away while trying to clear his vision from the darkness that had encased him.
"Black flames?" Leo asked. Wow, dark.
"They don't look that hot." The smith god commented.
"He called it flames of the sun goddess." Apollo snorted. "And he used it on the reincarnation of the old sun god. Morons be trippin'."
Sasuke jumped on this, infusing his sword with lightning chakra once again and aiming for Naruto's heart with a stab, this time to be sure of the infuriating ex-Jinchuriki's death. He underestimated Naruto's uncanny sixth-sense for danger and grunted in annoyance as the emblazed teen wrapped his hand around the chokuto, stopping it in its place.
"God power, got to love it." Ares chuckled.
"Didn't do you much good against Jackson."
"Blow it out your ass, Sunspot!"
What really irked the Uchiha was Naruto brushing off the lightning and blindingly bringing his sword down in an effort to slash Sasuke's arm. Naruto missed the arm, but managed to cut off the top half of Sasuke's chokuto, making the Uchiha stare in disbelief at the portion of his sword that fell to the ground.
"Now that was just badass." Percy whistled.
"Solar Flare!" said Naruto in a muffled exclamation, his body becoming blindingly bright and forcing Sasuke to look away. The glowing demigod successfully extinguished the dark flames, miffed that he couldn't simply absorb them due to the attribute to shadows they had.
"Well, he is a child of light. Can't have that happening." Hades shrugged.
The only way to extinguish a shadow was to introduce some light, and so he did.
Hades booed while Apollo and Artemis cheered in their own way.
This is insane! Sasuke thought as he lowered his arm and glared at his one-time friend.
"And that is what he gets for tries to stupidly fight someone like Naruto." Annabeth said, the guy didn't even know what he was getting into. It was almost sad in a way. Almost.
Naruto returned the glare tenfold, clenching his fist around the handle of his sword. Sasuke looked at his half-sword and closed his left eye once again.
"Amaterasu," he said, molding the flames with chakra into the shape of his sword.
"First a lightning sword, now a shadowy fire sword? One trick pony, dude." Leo said with a sad shake of his head.
Naruto scowled in annoyance, rushing forward and slashing his sword against Sasuke's, meeting resistance with each blow because of the equality of the light and dark ratio.
"Looks like the old dog got some new tricks," said Naruto with a hint of annoyance.
"Put the dog down already!" the war god jeered, this was almost as good as wrestling.
"I thought we were fighting," said Sasuke with a scowl as his arms trembled under Naruto's superior physical strength.
"You are, though you seem to suck at it." Nico mocked the enemy of his guardian.
At this rate, he may have to use his Susanoo just to put the dumbass down.
"He has moves with Shinto deity names?" the sun god said, "Wow, ego much?"
"Point to you," said Naruto. He pressed against his former ally's blade as a grin spread across his face at the shaking of Sasuke's arms. "Seems like someone's forgotten to do their daily pushups."
"Poor baby," Hazel mocked. Frank snickered at the truth in her mocking. Physical training was always a must for a fighter, not just learning flashy moves.
"Fuck you, Dobe!"
"Thanks for the offer, but I've already got a girlfriend."
Thalia burned red in the face for that and she glowered at the screen. Don't bring her into this stupid dick measuring contest!
Sasuke released a cry of rage as he began losing his ground against Naruto's strength.
"You mad bro?" Leo asked.
His eyes snapped open and glared, red and black eyes of loathing looking at the blue and gold that seemed to gleam mockingly at him.
"Oh yeah, that's from us." Apollo winked at Hermes, who snickered in return.
Frustrated and irritated at his losing ground, the massacre survivor bared his teeth, trying to stave off his opponent's blade. Naruto scowled in annoyance and brought his sword back suddenly, making Sasuke stumble forward. The glowing demigod brought his sword up and swung it down, slashing at Sasuke's unprotected back.
"End game." The war god whooped.
"Susanoo!" A purple glow sprouted from Sasuke's back, a small cage made of blue flames formed around him, stopping Naruto's blade with ease.
"Boo! Copout!"
"He did say he had something else in reserve." Athena pointed out.
"…Still a copout." Ares grumbled.
The glowing demigod let a brow arch in confusion as he pulled away from the new defense. While not as annoying as say intangibility, Naruto was still a little miffed at being unable to land a solid blow.
"And he has every right to be." Apollo frowned with crossed arms.
Especially after Sasuke caused Kyubi to go into hiding by fucking with his shield.
"Wonder where he went?" Percy questioned.
"Maybe we'll see him later, he could be with Pan," Annabeth supplied to her boyfriend, who nodded.
Sounded right to him.
Speaking of which, Naruto's eyes narrowed at Sasuke's blade, trying to figure out how that happened.
"Ooh, something special about it?" Leo asked eagerly.
"Like it Dobe?" Sasuke's voice made Naruto snap his attention to the smug looking traitor's face. "Susanoo, the ultimate technique of the Sharingan."
Artemis scrunched her nose, honestly, this man just reeked of arrogance, it was like some wannabe Heracles. He wasn't even the strong.
"Oh dear gods, you've got an ultimate technique, too?" Naruto bemoaned, putting his left hand on his face.
"I just hate when the bad guy does that." Piper said with pursed lips, it was like one of those animes. Stay down darn it!
Sighing, he dropped the hand to his hip and the dull edge of his blade rested on his shoulder. "We're just never going to be done here . . . Alright, I'll bite. What is this 'ultimate' technique of yours, Sasuke?"
"Great." Apollo said dryly as he rolled his eyes. "Villain monologue time. Tell us all about your special move."
"Susanoo is my guardian deity," said Sasuke, turning fully to look at the bored looking and annoyed face of Naruto.
The gods mouthed the word 'deity' with distaste, they could break that thing in one solid hit. Please!
"That boy must be high or something." Hermes muttered, he got nods to that one.
"It cannot be destroyed by any external means. The game is over, Naruto. Your little light show won't win this fight."
"The boy is an unstoppable force of light, that thing is going to break in half." Athena calculated, it was just basic facts.
"Challenge accepted," said Naruto with a smirk. He dropped his sword-baring arm down to his side in anticipation.
"I should warn you though," said Sasuke, "this is only the initial beginning of my Susanoo."
"Listen to him talk and talk and talk." Hazel muttered
"It's like Octavian, just with some skills." Frank muttered back.
"This is all extremely fascinating, Sasuke, but I've sort of got this thing to do so can we hurry it up a bit?"
"Talking to him like he's a nothin'. Good on ya kid." The father cheered.
Sasuke's smirk fell back into a scowl. "Fine then."
The two stood still, the blond's eyes narrowing, ignoring the direct gaze of the Sharingan, before he moved. In a blur he rushed forward, swinging his blade at the cage and scowling when he met resistance. A bone-like arm burst from the left and a large manifested blade swung down at the glowing teen. Naruto's eyes flickered up and his free hand caught the giant sword descending on him. The ground beneath his feet cracked from the pressure and Naruto grunted.
"So, caught anything lately?" Leo asked Nico.
Nico shook his head, "No, but heard someone caught a giant sword."
"Fascinating."
Holy hell! Helios exclaimed. What is this thing?
"Freaky." Nico answered the faded god, and for him to say that was something.
"A pain in the ass," said Naruto. Sasuke flickered a narrowed gaze at the blond while pulling his right hand, still wielding the Amaterasu formed blade, back and taking a swing. Naruto spun out of the way, withdrawing his sword to stave off the giant blade of Susanoo and catching Sasuke's overextended wrist. Twisting it, Naruto forced the blade out of Sasuke's hand. He released the Uchiha's arm and caught the blade before it touched the ground.
"Now that's a disarm."
"Lame." Hermes said, thumbs down to Percy.
The water boy pouted.
He used Hiraishin to get some space from his opponent, making the giant blade finish its descent into the ground and giving him a cover of dirt. Sasuke snarled, holding his wrist before swiping his good hand out in front of him, making the bony arm of Susanoo to clear the air.
"You know, I wondered how you could break through my shield," said Naruto's voice, making Sasuke spin around to glare at the top of the Hashirama statue where the glowing teen stood, his sword Eclipse stabbed into the statue's head while he held the black flame covered sword in his hand. He swung it a few times before sighing. "The grip on this is atrocious. It feels off. Too light for a chokuto, like there's more space between the metal and the grip."
"Finally." Leo muttered, what was up with that blade.
"Maybe has some Celestial bronze in it?" Percy asked
"Possibly." Leo answered with critical eyes on the image.
Sasuke said nothing, making Naruto tilt his head. "No comment? Then you wouldn't mind if I took a peek, would you?" Again, Sasuke said nothing. Naruto hummed before shrugging. Taking the handle in both hands, Naruto twisted, breaking apart the wood and leather to reveal the gleaming metal core. Blue sun-like pupils narrowed at the Japanese characters engraved at the core.
うずまきクシナ(Uzumaki Kushina)
"Isn't that his mom's…?" Nico trailed off.
"It is." Hazel frowned, they took his mother's weapon?
" . . . The Pinwheel's Spiral Blade," said Naruto with his nostrils flared. He raised the black emblazed blade up before shattering it over his knee, breaking the original metal away from what he saw as a tainted blade. He kicked the blade over the edge, looking down at the engraved metal as he did. He spun it onto the other side, finding nothing, before looking back at the characters. The blade that took his closest ally from him was originally his mother's.
"That little bastard." Apollo simmered.
The irony did not elude him.
Naruto gripped Eclipse's handle and stored the engraved metal in his back pouch, a scowl on his face as he did. His mother still had her sword, the one she used in life before her death. This came from her ceremonial short sword, a blade she was buried with.
Nico and Hazel gasped, while Hades frowned deeply, clenching his offered chair's armrests with his hands.
That meant that Orochimaru – or one of his cronies – had defaced his mother's grave.
All were frowning at this, but Apollo was growling like no tomorrow.
The Greeks found the act of grave robbing unforgivable, and his homeland found the act punishable by death. Orochimaru was lucky to be dead already, because Naruto was very eager to skin the snake-like bastard alive.
"Shame, I haven't hunted a snake in a while." Apollo hissed out, his own eyes now two balls of light.
"I thought we were fighting," said Sasuke, snapping the irate blond's attention on him once again.
"Dead." Ares grinned viciously, you do not mess with someone's mom, (Example: Percy Jackson) that was cold heartedly messed up and the duckbutt boy just fucked his life over. Sweet.
Naruto's hand tightened around Eclipse's handle, his eyes blazing in fury. His sword seemed to reflect his anger, as Eclipse's Stygian Iron blade shone a brilliant gold before bursting into white flames.
"White flames, so light fire combo." Leo nodded, makes sense, son of the sun god with Helios added in, that was cool to the young pyro.
Naruto vanished and reappeared in front of Sasuke, Eclipse brought back over his shoulder and cutting through the incomplete cage of Susanoo, making the Uchiha's eyes widen as his defense was broken.
"Unbreakable." Annabeth snorted, really, what an idiot.
Naruto followed through with the opening and punched Sasuke squarely in the face, feeling and hearing the satisfying crunch of his one-time friend's nose break against his knuckles.
"Cave his skull in!" Apollo cheered with Ares, who was now eating some popcorn.
With a furious cry, Naruto put enough strength that had Atlas stumbling into the follow-through of the punch, sending Sasuke flying back into the rocky wall of the Valley of the End.
"Like a fly on the wall." Jason smirked with a look, getting Piper to nod with him.
Naruto breathed heavily through his nose, trying to calm down from his burst of anger. The blond clenched his jaw and lowered his arm, relaxing his stance.
"Chidori Eisō!"
Naruto sidestepped out of the way of the beam of electricity, his eyes narrowing at the hole that Sasuke pulled himself out of with his hand extended. The Last Uchiha had blood pouring down his face from his broken nose and his eyes were set into a glare.
"That's what you get for having such stupid hair." Aphrodite said with a huff. He was a little handsome yes, but not all that great. Far too dark for her liking.
The glowing teen narrowed his gaze, vanishing from sight and reappearing right in front of Sasuke with his sword above his head. Sasuke's eyes widened a margin and he moved out of the descending sword's way, making Naruto slice through the rocky earth like it was butter.
"Scrambling like a cockroach." Hades chuckled darkly, oh he loved to watch those in desperation.
Sasuke panted before clenching his fists and gritting his teeth. "Susanoo!"
Naruto pulled his sword out of the rock wall and watched as a purple form built itself up around the Uchiha. It started off human-like, but then the head started to form. Horns like a bull's sprouted from the skull-like head and then the muscles formed. In front of the reincarnated demigod, a demonic samurai rose above the raging Uchiha two right arms sprouting from the elbow while a single left arm grew.
"That is either kinda cool, or really creepy." Nico mumbled.
"Creepy." Hazel muttered to him. That got a few nods.
A purple manifested blade appeared in the upper right arm, while the lower arm held a ball of the energy. A bow – which in Naruto's opinion looked like it was more of a shield than a bow – sprouted over the left arm and the glowing yellow eyes of the defense locked on Naruto's golden form.
"Looks like some BS foldup crossbow." Apollo muttered in a grump mood.
"Wonderful, the cheap bow for amateurs." Artemis rolled her eyes.
"…And here I thought there was no such thing as a bigger douche," said Naruto.
"Zing."
"Hermes!"
"What? Someone has to do it!"
"Playtime is over, Naruto!" Sasuke announced as he jumped up and allowed legs to form. Naruto groaned as he looked up at the thirty-foot tall manifestation. Another giant, just what he wanted.
"Gonna have to start calling him the giant slayer." Jason smirked, even if they weren't real giants.
The blond gripped his sword tightly.
Ready Helios?
Just say the magic words, Kid.
Naruto let a small smirk spread across his face before both of their voices spoke: "Then let's light it up!"
"Light it up-up-up, light it up-up-up, he's on fire~." Apollo hummed the Fall Out Boy song, getting some hums from the more rocker kids.
The glowing demigod shot off the ground, making a crater as he jumped at the tall purple energy warrior. The left arm shot out to smack him down, only for Naruto to teleport just right of the hand, reappearing atop of the arm and running up to the head. He jumped again as the right arm wielding the blade took a swing and the other right arm shot a beam of what Naruto assumed to be chakra at him. The glowing teen maneuvered himself midair to avoid other beams of chakra, bringing the still burning blade of Eclipse down onto the left side of Susanoo's neck. The manifestation let out a strangled – and demented – cry at the strike, one that sounded like the mix of a roar and of Sasuke's own voice.
"Rip it open!" Ares cheered, "Make it scream!"
"Like a can of sardines?" Athena asked, getting a glare from her rival.
"Yeah, like that!" Ares nodded quickly, stuffing his face with popcorn.
Naruto pulled Eclipse back and swung again, cutting into the supposedly impenetrable armor and getting another loud cry for his action.
"So much for an ultimate technique." Percy rolled his eyes.
"Bad guys just love to throw that around too much nowadays." Piper said with a shake of her head. It happened in the movies all the time sadly, cliché much?
Naruto growled at the thickness of the armor in frustration before he pulled Eclipse back.
"Well, his sword is a hacking weapon." Jason said, it would take a few swings to get what you wanted it too.
With a shout, Naruto drove the burning tip of Eclipse into the neck, piercing through the small part of the chakra manifested armor with ease, getting an earthshakingly loud scream that made Naruto's eyes widen.
Sasuke felt Susanoo's injuries.
"That is a glaring flaw." Athena said with an owlish blink, seriously. Sure, it was big and powerful, but enough assault on it and done.
Naruto steeled his resolve and tore his blade through the side, cutting open Susanoo's neck. He forced the hole open, ignoring the screams Sasuke was letting out. This was a fight that Sasuke – and a part of himself – wanted, and he was going to finish it.
"About time, too." Apollo nodded, this kid needed to go.
Naruto forced his way into the manifestation, dropping down behind the screaming Uchiha.
"Assassinate, assassinate, assassinate." Ares cheered.
"Decapitatiooooon~!" Leo cried out.
"Brutal Legend, nice." Apollo winked at the young pyro.
Sasuke felt Naruto's presence, turning around just in time for Naruto's sword to cut into the joint of his left shoulder, making Sasuke's eyes widen.
Everyone leaned in, a bit eager for the final line Naruto would deliver.
Naruto yanked out the blade and raised his other hand right into Sasuke's eyes, the golden palm gleaming slightly. "I won't kill you, Sasuke. I'll do worse!"
"What could be worse than killing him?" Piper wondered
Athena smiled. "He values his magic eyes correct? What was Helios able to do?"
"He's gonna…" Her daughter trailed off as her mother nodded. Wow, that was going to burn the emo guy deep.
"No!"
"SOLAR FLARE!"
Sasuke's Sharingan took the full brunt of the light, his scream deafening and his Susanoo collapsing from the strain the castor was taking.
"Man, haven't seen Hel do that for the longest time." Apollo shook his head.
"I find it poetic." Athena nodded.
"Of course you would." The gods muttered. The goddess was never one to vaporize a mortal, no, just turn them into a monster that would haunt her children. Mother of the Year right here.
Sasuke dropped to the ground on his back, his good hand reaching up for his eyes as he screamed while Naruto landed on his feet, panting. He coughed again, golden laced blood being spat to the side as his left hand stung upon contact with the air, the flesh literally burnt away from his heated attack. He stared down at the writhing form of his former friend, but did nothing else. This would be the punishment, Naruto's revenge on the friend that tried to kill him.
"Should have killed him," Ares grunted out, a frown on his face. Some agreed, others didn't, finding this just as suitable.
Like with his encounter with Luke, it was a bittersweet victory.
Hermes let out a small sigh at that.
Vengeance is the path one takes when they have nothing to lose. Helios said in a rare moment of guidance. I think you knew that all along.
Nico shifted a bit in his seat at that statement.
Naruto said nothing as he tried to regain his breath. He just watched as Sasuke screamed and writhed around on the ground. The Uchiha brought his hand down, his blank and dull eyes searching around fruitlessly.
"To the left, the left, no! Your other left!" Nico jokingly taunted, ah, dark humor.
Sasuke rolled onto his hands and knees, struggling to get to his feet. He grit his teeth and his head swiveled around.
"Naruto! Naruto! WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY EYES, NARUTO?"
"Geez, bitchy, ain't he?" the war god grunted, a sneer towards the screen.
"Well, he just got blinded, so freaking out made sense." Hermes shrugged.
"Bah!"
"This is just sad," said Naruto softly, closing his eyes. They snapped back open as he jumped back, narrowly avoiding being hit by Juugo's giant grey fist.
"Oh come on, going after him when he just fought." Percy grumbled, he hated guys who did that. So cheap.
"That's life Jackson, shut up." Ares sneered at him, getting a glare back from his demigod rival.
He ducked under a following swing, but it was a feint and a damn left strike caught him off guard again, getting Naruto right in the gut.
That got a collective of winces from the demigods.
Gasping, Naruto stumbled back, only to be cracked across the face and sent tumbling. His body was slowly recovering from the strain on his body from taking too much power, faster than the average child of Apollo with vitakinesis, but still slower than normal. His still burnt hand pressed down on the dirt and he cried out at the pain.
"Keep him busy Juugo!" said Suigetsu, grabbing Sasuke under his arm. "Shut it, Sasuke! I'm trying to help you, asshole!"
"My eyes! My eyes!"
"My ears! My ears!" Nico mocked, "Damn, shut up dude."
"Seriously, you give emo's a bad name," said Thalia.
"Yea-I'm not emo!"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah! Juugo!"
"Go!" Juugo called, his face partially 'normal' as he kicked the downed Naruto. Suigetsu nodded and jumped away. Juugo turned to the one that attacked his leader, the one Kimimaro was loyal to, and delivered a powerful kick directly to the ribs of the blond. "C'mon! Get up! Fight! Die like a warrior!"
"I like this guy." Ares nodded, at least he let the blond do that much.
"You-You sound like my uncle. Act a bit like him, too," said Naruto with another cough of golden speckled blood.
"Hey," the war god grinned, "Maybe I have a kid there, too!"
"It would explain why he is a psychotic barbarian." Athena scowled.
"Too kind owl head, too kind."
He caught the next kick aimed at his side and tugged, dropping the violent mutated man to his back. "You're even as predictable as he is, dumbass."
The gods and Percy laughed at the reddening Ares as he crossed his massive arms.
"See if I ever compliment you again, little brat." He grumbled.
Juugo responded with a snarl and a kick to the whiskered teen's face. Naruto's head snapped back and the blond was pretty sure he chipped a tooth.
"You monster!" Apollo cried out dramatically, he dare ruin his kid's teeth! It was his and their pride!
That'll be a bitch to fix for the next few days.
Aphrodite let out a relieved sigh at that, good. Can't have that handsome face ruined after all.
The mutated warrior got to his feet quickly. Juugo's axe-like protrusion returned and he dropped it in the direction of Naruto's head. The blond rolled out of the way, and rolled again when a frustrated Juugo tried to once more split the head of the blond, this time with a sword-like growth out of his forearm.
"That, is like some Wolverine BS right there." Leo muttered. How did that even work?!
"Still damn awesome." Ares said, he really wished he had a kid like that.
Naruto used Hiraishin to get some distance from Juugo.
Unfortunately, he underestimated the effects of teleporting on an open burn. 'Ow' was an understatement to what Naruto felt when he reappeared on the opposite side of the Valley of the End, biting his lip in order not to cry out. Naruto scooted up to the rock wall, grasping his wrist and glaring at the slowly healing palm. "Heal dammit." His head smacked against the wall behind him. It did nothing to dull the pain. "Ow." It also hurt a bit.
"Sunburnt to the extreme," Nico shivered, he hated getting a tan.
"You could use some sun," Hazel observed her brother.
"Never." Was the firm retort.
"Found you!" Naruto shifted to his right to avoid the sword-like hand that was stabbed in his direction. Wow, he must be seriously out of it if the bloodlust driven mutant could get the drop on him . . . or Juugo is better than Naruto originally thought.
"More like you're off your game kid." Apollo said, but who could hold it against the kid? He just had a rough fight.
Juugo's axe-like arm was raised and he grinned maniacally. "Die!"
Two streams of lightning shot out from the forest and sent Juugo rolling to the side. Naruto looked over, sighing in relief as Thalia and Jason rushed at the rising madman with their sparking spears at the ready.
"Rescue comes from lightning and thunder!" Piper exclaimed.
Apollo pouted at her, "Hey, that's my job kiddo."
"Sorry." Said a sheepish Piper.
Naruto hissed as dust shot up in their collision, his instinctual protection of his face caused the debris-filled air to brush against his still healing palm. Damn, he needed some bandages or something.
"Naruto." The monotonous voice of Gaara made Naruto look up, seeing the grainy form of the destabilizing clone and the concerned face of Piper looking down at him. "Are you all right?"
"Piper, use Cure!"
"I'm not a White Mage, Leo." Piper bristled, crossing her arms.
The pyro just snickered at his joke.
"Could be worse. Could still be dead," said Naruto, using his good hand to press against the rock wall and get back to his feet. He looked the Kazekage over before a golden brow arched. "Clones?"
"The other Kage have been notified and are on their way with aide for Konoha," said Gaara. "The meetings should finish in person. If we continued to use clones, we'd never get anything done."
"I beg to differ," said Naruto with a smirk.
"Clones for chores!" Leo announced.
"The hot new thing." Nico followed up as the room laughed at the joke.
"Not all of us can make an army."
"You're still mad about the 1000 Barrage thing, aren't you?"
"He made a thousand clone attack?" Ares asked, intrigued.
"Seems so," Athena said, just as intrigued at the prospect of it.
"I never said that."
"You're not denying it either."
"Yeah, he's still mad." Jason nodded, he could tell, being around so many stoic types it was easy to read.
Naruto shook his head as the sand clone dissolved and blew away in the wind, not giving a response. Gaara was definitely still mad, but in his defense, Naruto used an explosive kunai to his ass.
"Now that is evil." Percy blanched.
"Hell no Jackson, that is awesome." Ares argued.
"Of course you would think that."
"Damn straight I would, you little punk."
Not the best way for the untouchable monster of Suna to be attacked or the most dignified for that matter. The blond hissed as a gust of wind hit his hand, pulling it to his chest and looking at Piper.
"Not going to go jump into the fray?" Naruto asked the young demigoddess.
"He's joking, right?" Piper asked with a noticeable gulp.
"I think so sweetie." Aphrodite giggled gently, Naruto was a tease though, so it was hard for some to tell at times.
Piper shook her head, watching as Jason and Thalia stabbed, deflected and smacked Juugo with their electrified spears that could do little good against mortals, but did a good job at keeping Juugo on his toes.
"The spears may do no good, but the electricity does a fine job at that." Thalia smirked.
"True, it could go into him and shock his insides."
"Jay, too dark."
"Practical." The brother argued lightly.
Naruto nodded and looked down at his hand. "Makes sense. You're too…new to this, I should say. Don't worry we'll fix that once we get back to Camp.
"And I can't wait." The love child smiled.
"Well, you are going to fight in the battle then." Annabeth pointed out, getting Piper to slump with a sigh.
"Great."
Still got Zephyr's Dagger?"
"Yes," said Piper, looking at the dagger in her hand. She looked back up and watched as Thalia blocked Juugo's axe with her shield and jabbed her spear into his side. "Will I learn to fight like that?"
"Well, you have to be awesome like us." Thalia winked at the girl jokingly.
"Piper is plenty of awesome." Jason argued sternly with a look at his sister.
"Thank you Jason," his girlfriend said and gave him a small peck on the cheek, getting the blond to smile.
"Suck up." Thalia teased him, getting the Roman to flush a bit.
"Hopefully," said Naruto. He gave her a small smirk. "Unless you act like your cabin and get all gossipy during training."
The love goddess bristled while Artemis laughed at her.
"I'd rather learn how to fight," said Piper.
Piper smirked, getting Aphrodite to beam a bit.
"Most levelheaded one I've seen." Artemis added, getting the lady of doves to glare at her.
"Oh hush you."
" . . . By the Gods I didn't think it was possible. Another Silena Beauregard.
Aphrodite gave a sad sigh for her daughter, she missed the girl. Piper also felt sad, but had a small smile come next, she was going to meet her now, that was going to be nice.
Damn, there goes that five drachma bet I made against Castor."
Dionysus gave a sad sigh as well, he missed his boy.
"Who?"
"Son of the Head Counselor. Duck." Naruto dropped down and Piper quickly followed suit as Thalia's shield was sent flying over their heads.
"Nice discus throw, Thalia."
"Oh shut up, corpse bride." The hunter snarked to Nico.
"Well, this is going well. Stay here a second, Pipes." He ran forward, ignoring the angry glare the younger girl gave him for using her dad's nickname for her.
"Seriously, he doesn't have that right."
"I think it's cute of him to do."
"Of course you would, mom."
In his right hand (the good one) he began building up heat and chakra, creating the small yet destructive Taiyoton: Rasengan. As the miniature ball of light built up in his hand, Naruto got closer to the fight, sliding under a swing made by Juugo that was aimed at Jason. He spun on the ball of his foot as Thalia thrust her spear forward; the head sparking much like her eyes as it impaled Juugo's side and making the maniac cry out at the electrocuting pain.
"See, it works."
"Yes Jason, yes it does." Thalia rolled her eyes.
Jason twirled Julius in his hand before he also stabbed forward, though his spear went in through Juugo's back and out his stomach. Juugo fell to his knees, roaring as the burning power of lightning coursed through his body.
"Wow, brutal."
"Leo." Jason groaned, it was a good tactic for fighting a mortal opponent.
Naruto juggled the ball of light to his burnt left hand, the skin healing over much faster at the exposure to the flames of the attack (though Naruto failed to take notice),
"Fire healing, oh man, me and him are going to rock tag teaming." Leo smirked with crossed arms.
"He does make a good point." Hazel pointed out, getting Leo to beam.
and pulled Eclipse out. With burning determination, Naruto spun Eclipse around in his hand and stabbed it through Juugo's left shoulder blade, the sword shooting out through his pectoral and making Juugo's head snap up. Juugo's crazed eyes met Naruto glowing ones.
"Well, that's one ways to get a guy's attention." Jason said.
"Taiyoton: Rasengan!" Naruto announced as he brought the attack down towards Juugo's awaiting face. The attack exploded outwards centimeters away from contact; unstable due to Naruto juggling it when it wasn't designed to be. It was a premature explosion, the concussive force of Naruto's attack made the three demigods fly backwards away from their respective weapons still impaled into Juugo's corpse.
"Nice kill." Ares nodded.
"Stabbed and blown up to death, excellent." Hera sniffed, a bit too undignified to her tastes, but still, it got the job, albeit sloppily, done.
Jason hit the rock wall of the Valley's signature cliff with enough force to make a small crater,
"…Ow." The boy muttered, rubbing his shoulder a bit at the picture.
while Thalia ended up skidding through the dirt to a stop next to Piper,
"And she doesn't stick the landing."
"Screw you wethead!"
and Naruto went soaring through the woods, plowing down the giant trees Hi no Kuni was famous for until he came to a stop a good mile away from the Valley.
"And that one got some distance." Hermes whistled, wow.
His eyes fell shut and he faintly heard Helios calling out his name, as well as his arm throbbing in pain.
Piper went to Thalia since she was the closest, crouching next to the older girl and helping her out of the trench she made.
"You got blown up good."
"One day Nico, I swear!"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah." The death child waved off the threat of his sparking cousin.
The daughter of Zeus groaned, getting to her feet and looking at the mutated warrior getting to his own.
"Zombie?!" the kids cried out.
Hades chuckled at that one, oh, what will mortals try next? Only he and his children could make true zombies. But the whole spreading disease part was just ridiculous along with the brains thing. Please.
They liked livers better.
"You have got to be kidding me," said Thalia. She was used to Kindly Ones not staying down, but this guy just didn't know the meaning of the word 'retreat'. Naruto wasn't kidding when he said most wouldn't accept surrender as an option.
"I'll kill you first," said Juugo, pulling the weapons out of his body and dropping them to the ground. Eclipse was the hardest to remove, but Juugo got it out after a moment of struggling, along with a good chunk of his body.
"And he's still moving?" Nico asked, "Geez, talk about a mortal monster."
"If only there were more like him."
Athena just gave her war brother a disbelieving look at his wistful tone.
The mutated madman dropped the sword to the ground atop Jason's Julius and Thalia's spear before storming at the two girls. Thalia stepped in front of Piper with the faintest hints of sparks around her fists and charged at the older man, but Juugo knocked her away with the blunt side of his sword-arm.
"Ow," Thalia muttered with a wince. That had to hurt.
He focused on the backpedaling daughter of Aphrodite, who stared wide-eyed at the abomination before her, causing her to trip and fall to the ground before she resumed her tactical retreat.
"Charmspeak, Charmspeak!" Piper cried out while Jason clenched his fists in worry.
Juugo lifted his axe-baring arm up. "Die!"
"Piper look away!" Thalia called out, but Piper didn't do that. Her adrenaline had her battle senses going wild and she kept her eyes on the closest threat.
"Smartest move." Athena nodded.
This meant that she watched as Thalia impaled Juugo through his back, the lightning encased bronzed spear coming out through his chest, a bit of blood spraying across Piper's face.
"Maybe not," Athena corrected with a frown.
"Well, that isn't psychologically scarring." Piper dripped with sarcasm.
Thalia frowned at that, that wasn't good.
Juugo looked down at the gleaming spearhead coming out of his chest, where a portion of his heart was, and slowly the grey part of his face faded away, the weapon-like protrusions vanishing as his body shut down. His body twitched from the lightning coursing through his veins.
"Shocking."
"Not now matchstick." Thalia grumped, not in the mood for commentary.
Thalia pulled her spear out, allowing Juugo to fall to the side. He landed on his back, coughing up blood before his eyes landed on Thalia. "I…Die…" His head fell to the other side and his breathing stopped.
"Yes, yes you do." The son of death nodded, couldn't get much deader than him. Nope. No surrey. That man...thing was dead. He was so dead that Nico could even dare to say he was cadaverific.
It was then that Thalia realized she had just killed someone, not a monster, not something from Greek history, but a living breathing human – at least he looked it now. She didn't know how to react to that, and looking at the wide eyed, blood covered Piper, Thalia knew that this wouldn't be as easy to shake off as she thought it would be when Naruto warned her and her cousins that it most likely would happen.
"It never is." Artemis sighed out with a sad look, remembering the many talks she had given over the years when one of her new hunters had killed a human being, be it accident or purpose.
Everything had changed.
The hunter had a sad look on her face. For her other, it truly had.
Sasuke screamed, thrashing in his bed in the hidden lair of Madara within the Land of Rain.
"Of course the bad guy would have a hidden lair." Apollo mocked, sigh, such a cliché, a good one, but seriously.
All he could see was white and his head felt like it was on fire.
"Hope it hurts!" Apollo said scathingly. No one fucks with his kids.
He wasn't sure how that damn idiot blinded him, but once he got his eyesight back:
"He actually thinks he'll get it back?" Apollo laughed. "It doesn't even matter if you get new eyes put in! They've been burned all the way to the brain. It's how we work emoduck, deal with it."
"I AM GOING TO KILL HIM!"
"That's cute." Ares snickered. "He got played like a fiddle and he still thinks he has a chance, even with sight on his side."
"Stop struggling, Sasuke-kun!" hissed out his very pale and very snake-like doctor. He had pale white hair and yellow serpent-like eyes, a purple marking around his left eye and what appeared to be scales going down the left side of his body.
"Snakes, it's always snakes!" Apollo cried out, seriously, his kid just had to deal with his problems.
Artemis nodded to him at that, she hated the things just as much as her brother did.
The man once known as Kabuto Yakushi now dubbed Kabutomaru by Suigetsu for his experiment to fuse himself with the remains of his old employer Orochimaru.
"So we have a twisted surgeon in the court, nice." Poseidon drawled, honestly, what did this boy get into?
The snake-like monstrosity of a surgeon sighed and dropped the head of his deceased master's favorite pet project.
"So the kid was nothing more than a twisted pet project?" Ares snorted. "What a joke he is." He laughed throatily.
"There's absolutely nothing I can do. You may release him, Suigetsu."
"Of course not." Apollo snorted quietly as he leaned back into his throne.
"Oh, gee, thanks," said Suigetsu sarcastically as he released Sasuke's body from the water entrapment he had created. He walked over to the side of the room and grabbed his giant butcher's blade, carrying it out with him as he grumbled about abusing power and lazy crazy assholes.
Kabuto rolled his eyes before returning his attention to his patient, who continued to writhe and loudly curse the blond ex-Jinchuriki. Humming to himself, Kabuto wondered what exactly Naruto did to permanently blind the eyes of an Uchiha.
"Well, I'm sure he could give a demo." Thalia smirked, getting a few laughs.
Sure, the Sharingan could make out shapes, but that wasn't good for someone who needed to be on the frontlines of a war. Or for Sasuke's own mental health, but in Kabuto's opinion that was unsalvageable and anyone to try to help Sasuke's mentality would only lose themselves to madness as well.
"D, what did you do?"
"Shut up, Hermes."
Sighing, Kabuto turned and walked away, planning on going over his and Orochimaru's old notes to see if he could find any sort of cure for Sasuke's new problem.
"I'll kill him!" Sasuke vowed. "I'll rip off his head! No, no, too simple, too easy! First, I'll destroy the village!
"He doesn't even care about it anymore." Nico rolled his eyes, what a loon.
Then, oh then I'll kill him. Naruto Uzumaki, you're dead!"
"Has he been taking your classes?" Poseidon asked his elder brother.
"Go suck on a starfish."
"But would it do you any good?" the voice was deep, yet hissing like a snake.
"Oh great, another snake!" Apollo threw his hands in the air, it was a wonder why his kids hated them along with himself. So disgusting!
However, it was not that of any of Sasuke's summons or of Kabuto's. That Sasuke knew of anyway.
"Who said that?" Sasuke demanded. "Kabuto? Suigetsu? Karin? ...Juugo?"
"No, he's kinda, unalive at the moment." Hades joked with mirth.
"Would you like to see again?"
"Of course!"
"Do you want vengeance on the boy?"
"More than anything."
"Wow, what a tool." Nico mocked.
"Funny thing about that…" Percy trailed off.
"Hey, the Minos thing doesn't count!"
"Riiight."
"How far would you go to achieve both?"
"I will do whatever it takes to get my revenge."
"How about a deal, then?"
" . . . I'm listening."
"Making deals with the devil." Apollo sang out a bit for fun.
"You make a blood pact with me as you have with the animals of these lands, and I will help you get back at that boy."
"Seems someone doesn't like your kid." Hermes told his sun brother. Apollo rubbed his chin, wondering who it was this time.
"How do I know you won't betray me?" Sasuke heard the voice chuckle and he felt the room go dark as something moved serpent-like within it, fast enough to make a rush of wind.
"Because I too, want to kill the boy. Though, this is more out of my own vengeance against his father."
Eyes turned to Apollo.
"Hey, I killed a lot of snakes, so who knows what-" he paused and his eyes widened. "No freaking way."
"What?" his twin asked
"I will kill him," said Sasuke determinedly. "This was the last straw."
"Poor baby." Ares jeered at the loser.
"Of course."
"Who are you?"
"All will be clear after we make the deal." Sasuke scowled. He was being put into the dark on this deal and he didn't like it.
"You seem used to it, you tool." Ares jeered again.
However, he wouldn't be much good to redeeming his clan's name without his sight.
"You're a marked terrorist, what redeeming is he doing?" Percy asked. In his opinion this guy was stupid.
Gritting his teeth, Sasuke lifted his hand and bit down on his thumb to draw blood. He offered his hand and something scaly wrapped around it, drawing on his blood and making Sasuke writhe in pain.
"You asked for it." Hazel said with a shake of her head.
As he screamed in agony, the voice chuckled darkly.
"Vengeance will be mine, Sauroctonos."
"By Order." Artemis muttered in shock, many looking on with wide eyes at the shadowy image.
"Who?" Percy asked.
"That's my nickname." Apollo told the water boy, staring at the screen with wide eyes. How could he be back? He never came back!
The sun god sent a glare to Hera who had a look of intrigue on her face, not even bothered by the glare at all. He looked back at the screen.
Apollo was worried, his kid had the toughest fight of his life coming now.
Not good, really not good.