Oh look who's back? The lazy me. So my resolution of updating every week has apparently went up in flames but at least I can assure you that I am not going to abandon this thing.
We are slowly getting into the plot, hopefully you guys like this chapter.
Please enjoy. Naruto and Percy Jackson does not belong to me. Have fun!
Naruto stepped aside as another projectile spit was sent his way, everything came to him slowly as if it was a dream. Maybe it was, he couldn't remember how he had gotten here. He just knew he had to stop them from taking Sasuke. There was a feeling of betrayal coursing through him. He didn't know for whom, he just knew that it felt bitter and broken. A familiar pair of black eyes sifted through his eyes but before he could focus on it, it disappeared. He dodged another attempt at his life and brought his sword in a slow motion toward the demon fighting him. As it cut through his upper body and it dissolved, something snapped his hand, something thick coiling around his hand. A laugh crackled in his ear, a whisper slithering around him, telling it was all futile.
"Naruto" a voice screamed a voice that was now so familiar to him.
"Sasuke" Naruto shouted as he turned, trying to tug his wrist, his movements remaining slow and sluggish. He saw as Sasuke dangled from a rope, his face bloody and fierce even in a fight that was not his. Naruto saw the rope and tried to look at the person who held it but couldn't see it. He cursed at whatever was coursing through him, making him so vulnerable.
As he watched, the figure in control of the rope jerked it and Sasuke's arm bent at a painful angle. A grunt escaped him but before he could say anything, the figure took him away. A scream tore through Naruto's throat…
… and he found himself on the floor of his room.
He could feel his blood pounding in his veins, breath rough and short. This was the longest his dream had been, before now it had always been short snatches of the scenes but this was something whole. Just as he was catching his own breath, trying to untangle the dream from reality, a hand grasped his shoulder.
The training of all these years, his own body's response had him on his feet, hands on his whistle and another hand pushing the person backward with an open hand push to a chest. The person grunted something similar to his dream and staggered back.
It took him a moment to know that he had overreacted. Light coming from Sasuke's side of table lamp gave illumination enough to see the scene infront of him. Sasuke was sitting on the floor, a shocked expression on his face with anger warring. Naruto's blanket was on the floor. His bed was a big mess, he was probably tumbling around in them. He forced himself to be calm and, taking his hand away from the whistle.
"Sasuke?" He asked, his voice a bit hoarse.
"Who else dumbass?" Sasuke did sound a bit angry.
He shuffled toward Sasuke, offering him a hand. The raven took it, griping it as if he wanted to break it but got himself up instead. He freed his hand, running it through his inky locks, messing them in a way that still looked.
"What was that about?" He asked.
Naruto rubbed his neck sheepishly.
"I'm sorry, I had a bad dream."
Sasuke gave him a flat stare.
"I gathered." His tone was as dry as a desert. He kept on staring.
"What?" Naruto asked, very self-conscious.
"What was that response?" Sasuke asked.
Naruto chewed his lips; he wondered why Sasuke was questioning that.
"I don't know. I think it was kind of part of a dream." Naruto said, not even understanding his own excuse.
Sasuke looked skeptical, his gaze getting more probing. Naruto shrugged nonchalantly, trying to dismiss the situation.
"Well, sorry for that but I'll get back to sleep." He faked a yawn at that, which may not have sounded real.
Sasuke was still looking at him like he was going to turn Sherlock Holmes and investigate his whole life. It was apparent to him that he needed to distract Sasuke.
"But maybe with the way you are staring at me…" He paused, giving Sasuke a look from under his lashes, "you want to join me in the bed."
He allowed himself a slow, seductive smile.
He triumphed at the flush that crept Sasuke's cheeks.
"I'd rather pullout my own toe nails." Sasuke said angrily but Naruto could hear embarrassment mixed in it.
"Oh, I think the first option would be far better but if you'd rather be doing that, I'll just have my own pleasure time in my bed." He said and dived back into the warm mattress.
He closed his eyes, deepening his breath as if he was already sleeping but behind his eyes, he could see Sasuke, dangling from a rope, taken away from his through some invisible force. He heard Sasuke's silent steps moving back to his side, scraping on the chair and crinkle of paper as he went back to study. He spent his night listening to the sighs and mutter of Sasuke and the soothing sound of paper turning. He didn't knew when he went back to sleep but he felt like the unintentional lullaby from Sasuke's side had a lot of hand in calming him to get to that.
By the time morning rolled Naruto was happy to say that he had a good dreamless sleep. Being a demigod definitely had its downside when it messed with their dreams. For some people sleep was really important, at least Olympian gods can do with some consideration with their poor soul. Either way, the day was bright and fresh when he rolled on his back, stretching out all of his muscles. He could hear the birds outside, a delicious melody in it, one that made him look for his own instrument. His hand brushed against it and for a second he allowed himself to remember his mother. The deep ache passing as soon as he saw the clock on his bedside.
The yell that tore through his room was loud and he would have been worried for his neighbors if he hadn't known that everybody by now would be in class.
"Holy fucking shit!" Naruto said to himself, scrambling out of his bed and throwing himself toward where his clothes lay on a chair. All thoughts about sanitation flew from his mind when he remembered that Hatake Kakashi's lecture was first for today.
He didn't care checking about anything but the notebook in his bag and ran out the door, pausing for just a moment to make sure his door was locked. He thanked all the exercise that he had done in camp which now helped him to run like there was a monster behind him. On that note, he should probably thank those monsters too.
Ten minutes of running and knocking into other students and one very disgruntled teacher, he was sliding the door of his lecture hall, too loud to stay hidden. He gasped for his breath, trying to speak between it and only managing to choke himself.
"I'm sure I'll be interested in the creative story that you would end up cooking just for my sake but just get in and shut the door." Professor Hatake said.
"I… was…umm…" Naruto tried to think of something.
"You don't even have a story then, how tragic." He said, one eye curving in a devious way.
He looked the part too as he stood in the front, lazily resting against the wall behind him, there was something satanic in the way he regarded Naruto.
"Since we are talking about Tragic, you won't mind telling me something about one of the story from Metamorphoses that tells us something about falling in love with our own self, or rather our own looks."
Every eye in the room swerved to look at him, some frowning and some concentrating, trying to remember the answer. Naruto himself tried to jog his mind, trying to grasp at a memory of the story that he could remember just a bit.
"Uh.. Narcissus and Echo? Echo was a mountain nymph, an Oread and Narcissus was a guy who just looked at himself in a pool and Echo was a nymph who fell in love with him. Through his name comes the word Narcissism." Naruto said, proud at remembering the story.
"Very well" Kakashi said and turned back to the class.
Though he was relieved that his teacher has let him in the class yet he felt like he was now target of the teacher. He didn't know what to expect from a guy who covered half his face with muffler in summers.
He looked around, trying to look for a seat. There was already a girl beside Kiba and by the looks of it; Kiba was trying to entertain her. Most of the seats were full except the one beside a certain raven haired guy. The sigh that escaped him was loud enough to be heard by the whole row beside which he was standing. He trudged in between and put his bag on the desk, sitting heavily against the chair.
"Good morning" The way these two words were said made him want to throttle his neighbor.
He glared at Sasuke as he wrote his notes without looking at Naruto. There was an air around him which made the blonde feel that the nonchalant air around the Uchiha was a pretense to make him angrier.
If a secret part of him was marveling at the grace with which Sasuke held himself then nobody needed to know about that.
"You could have woken me up." Naruto furiously whispered.
"And ruin my fun, I don't think so." The raven replied and looked at him.
The sun rays slanted in a way through the window on the right side that for a moment Naruto was blinded by the way light reflected from Sasuke's eyes. There was something about Sasuke's body, it felt like it was made for moon light to shine on it. His creamy skin and midnight hairs would have looked ethereal under moon. Right now with the golden rays falling on his skin, Naruto wondered if it was not light but Sasuke that made him glow. He was sure that any color of light could fall on Sasuke, he would still look beautiful. Something that you can't touch, just watch.
"You have drool dripping from your mouth." Sasuke said, smirking his way.
Naruto eyes snapped back, finally registering that he had been just looking at Sasuke like an idiot for too much time for it to be casual.
Where was an earthquake when you desperately needed it?
He didn't bother checking his face, he knew Sasuke enough to know that it was just a provocation. Biting his lips he concentrated on his professor, trying to determine how much he has missed. Thankfully Professor Hatake was still talking about the myth of Narcissus and Echo. He was telling how some studies believed that Narcissus has actually fallen in love with his twin sister. He knew that the story was true, he had met Nemesis during one of his quest but humans wanted to believe something truthful. He just jotted down all the points that he would need to remember to make it in a project that he would surely get after this class.
He was humming one of his camp songs as he strolled down toward his next class. Today they were going to study Wordsworth. He was a favorite poet of his, a known son of Apollo who could actually write poems. He wondered if it was just another one of the Greek tragedy that God of Music didn't how to make good poetry, not that he was going to say it out loud. Apollo wouldn't mind striking him even if he was his son.
As he was following the path toward his next class, he felt it, the feeling creeping on his neck, like someone was watching him. He bit his lips, trying hard not to just jump in a defensive position and scare the student around him. He touched the whistle around his neck, trying to casually survey the area around him. Disappointment coursed through him as he saw nothing out of place. He knew his instincts well, if they told him he was in danger then he was. It would have been better if he already knew what was coming or from which direction it was coming from but for now he just had to be cautious. He wondered if whatever it was was going to attack him out in the open or would it wait for him to be alone. He hoped it was the latter; he couldn't just start swinging his weapon around when the people around him would fail to see the monster because of mist.
"Naruto!" Someone screamed behind him.
He turned and saw Choji coming toward him. He consciously tried to bleed the tension from his muscles not wanting anyone to know he was worried about anything.
He wondered if they could even discern, they were still the people he had met hardly a month and a half before. Though he spent most of his time with them yet he didn't think they could ever compare with Tenten or Shikamaru.
"Hey dude, where's Hinata?" He asked.
"She was with his cousin; they were discussing some family matters apparently." Choji said, rolling his eyes.
Naruto snorted at that, they were always discussing something. Hyugas was trying to make it a competition between them to decide who would be the next heir. Hinata and Neji on the other hand were trying to show elders the finger by doing everything together.
"Are they still going through the plans about what they would do when they would run the company together?"
"Something like that. They are mostly laughing at the elders and at the history that they are trying to throw at each other's face. Did you know Hitoru Hyuga once kissed a guy who was in drag?" Choji said, snickering.
Naruto's eyes widened, "No way, that old bat!" He burst out laughing.
Hitoru was one of the most uptight Hyugas, hearing something like this probably made his day. He wondered how much both the cousins had laughed at that. Neji and Hinata were definitely having fun between all this drama.
"And the best thing was that they had a photograph of that happening!" Choji exclaimed.
"Please, please tell me Hinata or Neji have a copy of that."
The mischievous tilt of Choji's lips was answer enough and Naruto couldn't stop himself from laughing.
"I can literally give anything to see that."
"I wouldn't mind taking a look at your whistle once in a while." A smooth voice said.
They both turned around, there was Neji and Hinata standing behind them, clearly amused visible through the smile gracing there features.
"Ha! Never in this life, Neji." Naruto said, covering his whistle with his hand for extra measure.
"Oh Naruto, I do think it will be worth it." Hinata chimed in, standing beside Choji and leaning a bit to see him more clearly around Neji.
Neji shifted bringing Hinata more in the circle they have made between the paths.
"Uzumaki's don't deal Hinata."He said mirth clear in his voice.
They all laughed at that and started walking toward the class. Neji was apparently there to drop off Hinata.
"Didn't knew ickle Hinata needed someone to be dropped off for a class." Naruto said, trying to change the topic.
Truth was Neji and he both knew that only Naruto or one of his brother or sister could touch the whistle. It was personally given to him by Apollo on a mission gone right. Letting someone from another house use it would be bad considering the God would think of it as insult. Olympian Gods definitely had some fragile pride.
Hinata punched him, which made his arm throb painfully. She had taken training in martial arts. Naruto needed to stop taunting girls, first Sakura with her punches, now Hinata. Girls would probably be the death of him, literally.
"We were just talking when I realized I was late for class. Neji decided to accompany me since he is not going to class."
"Why Neji, I never pegged you for the first one to stray from the path." Naruto drawled.
Another punch landed on his shoulder. Choji snickered at the pained yelp that escaped Naruto's mouth.
"Stop punching me!"
"Stop being annoying!"
"You ask the impossible Hinata."
"Ouch!"
The feeling of getting watched was not new to Naruto. He had participated in enough quests and capture-the-flag matches to discern the telltale sogn that someone's eyes was on him. The creeping feeling on his neck, tbe awareness of someone being there with him and the growing instinct to just turn around and start looking for whoever was there.
So he knew there was someone but what frustrated him was the wait, looking over his shoulder, waiting for other to pounce on him.
His plan of going outside was abandoned because he knew that the feeling would chase him in the end. So after an eventful class full of the lovely and lazy poet's quotes, he was ready to just go back to his room and sleep. Well it was better if he could get some work done but that was something that he would worry about later.
The first part of the plan went smoothly, he did not run into anyone from his class or got distracted by anyone, the second part though...
"What the...?" Naruto said, mouth gaping like a fish.
There stood Hermes, in all his mail boy glory with 4 cardboard boxes lined by his bed, big enough to hold anything. They were square, about 25-30 cm in height and looked weird sitting there. It looked even more forbiddig with Hermes there. Nothing good came when The god of theives was involved.
"Lord Hermes..?" He bowed a little and added a questioning lilt to his address.
"Naruto, how's the university life going?" Hermes said, his usual cheery self.
He fidgeted, he shouldn't be meeting Gods personally when he was out of the camp.
"It's going good." He said.
"It's good to see you having a normal life, I sometimes wish that my sons, The stolls would also go to college but I think I am more proud that they are doing what they are doing."
"That is hacking into big commpany computers and annoying the hell out of everyone." Naruto said, eyebrow going into his hairline.
"Young ones and their morals. So cute." Hermes said, reaching out to ruffle Naruto's hair.
Naruto put up with it, not wanting to get killed just because he batted away a God's hand.
"So...?" Naruto prompted.
"So?"
He's talking about the boxes, a slippery voice said in Naruto's head.
"Hey George" Naruto said cheerfully, seeing the snake peeping out of the shirt pocket.
"I was just getting there, just let me get the papers." Hermes said.
George, stop yammering unnecessarily, another voice joined.
You're one to talk. You couldn't shut your mouth when we were in Amazon, yapping about one snake after another.
Like you weren't ogling those female snake's scales the whole time, Martha hissed.
"Shut up you two or I'll tie you in a knot again." Hermes said, a tinge of exasperation in his voice.
"Since we have been to Amazon, they have been going through a rough marital time." Hermes explained at Naruto's confused face.
"That's.. umm... yeah, that's kinda bad."
"Annoying mostly" Hermes breathed and straightened up.
"Sign here please." Hermes said, offering the joined Martha and George pen in his hand.
Naruto signed the paper and waited for the explanation.
At Naruto's expectant look, Hermes' face cleared.
"Oh yeah, this is from Hades. Don't know what he is thinking helping you so much, Apollo wouldn't like it, though he seems more emerged in the new toy that Leo had given him during the war."
"Yeah I know, some say it's better than the Haiku period" Naruto said still confused as to what Hades had sent him.
He saw a shudder travel through his body.
"Haikus" Hermes said and shivered again.
Just as he was about to ask Hermes what the boxes contained, there was a rattle from door. He looked at Hermes, seeing him still emerged in Haiku filled nightmares as if his roommate finding a mail man in their room won't be weird. Now that he thought about it, would it be weird?
Before he could ponder on that, the door opened and Sasuke looked at him. Naruto turned, sure enough Hermes was gone. Figured, he would leave him with those boxes without an explanation.
"Why are you standing like that?" Sasuke asked, one eyebrow arched.
"I'm sorry, didn't knew I had to ask permission from you." Naruto snarked.
Sasuke just rolled his eyes and closed the door. Naruto shrugged, going toward the boxes.
He got up again when he realised he would need a scissor to cut the tape, getting it he started working on opening the boxes.
He grimaced at the stubborness of the tape but kept at it. When he was done, he was floored to see it filled with Dr. Pepper's.
It was in lemon flavour that he didn't like that much, he wondered what Hades was thinking sending him all this. He looked at the remaining three boxes with suspicion, he wished it was something more practical but he did not have much hope.
He looked back in his room to see if Sasuke has anything to say that, he always had a comment to add to anything that happened with Naruto but it lookedd like he was in bathroom.
He sighed and started on the second box. By the time he was done, he almost wanted to hurl all the bottles at Hades. His suspicion was right, all the boxes had Dr. Pepper in them. At least all were different flavour. He had found his favourite cola flavoured drinks in the third box. There was a ginger flavoured one too which he had never liked. Aside from that there was blackberry too.
He had found a note in one of the boxes explaining how Hades has heard that College students drank a lot and he wanted Naruto to not do that. Hence this solution. Naruto was getting a bit suspicious, he knew Hades preferred him but this much favouritism, it was not natural. He could not think what Hades wanted from him but he was sure there was something. He wondered if there was some fight going on in Olympis, though Hermes had seemed happy as usual.
He shook his head, not wanting to think about Gods and their insane politics, now he just wanted to think what he would do with these many bottles. It was obvious he would have to give most of them to his friend. He was fond but not that fond of this drink.
"And Ginger? Who even likes ginger flavoured Dr. Pepper?" Naruto said out loud, eyeing the offensive drink with distaste.
"Well it's hard for commoners to understand the exquisitness of a god given drink." A voice said behind him.
Naruto turned, Sasuke was near his bed but looking at the boxes and its contents with a strange light in his eyes.
"Ofcourse it's you who likes it." Naruto said in a dry tone.
Sasuke's nose twitched at that but his focus was still on the box filled with ginger flavoured Dr. Pepper. Naruto recalled what Sasuke had just said.
"So... god given drink?" Naruto ask, a teasing tone in his voice.
"It's as good as any." The raven said in an aloof tone.
Naruto's smile widened, Sasuke liking a drink so much, it was kind of adorable.
"Do you want one Sasuke?" He asked.
Sasuke looked torn, Naruto wondered why he would even say no to that, all that Uchiha pride aside.
"If you're insisting." Sasuke eventually said.
"When did I insist?" He said but took out one of the bottles out nonthless.
He gave the bottle to Sasuke, noticing for the first time the disheveled wet hair of the raven and the spicy scent that came off of him. Naruto had a sudden urge to wet his lips as he found a single drop of water just sitting near Sasuke's left ear. He was very much tempted to lick it but he thanked his self control. He reminded himself that it was just physical attraction and nothing good came out of being with your roommate like that.
To distract himself he started thinking about where to put all the bottles.
"You can put them in my cooler, though they all won't get in it." Sasuke said, pointing at the mini fridge he had brought with him.
"Well Kiba has it too and Hinata too I think. Kiba probably would be happy after he sees them."
"He probably would." Sasuke said, grimacing.
The bottle had vanished from Sasuke's hand so he assumed that the one he had given him was already in Sasuke's fridge.
"I'll just tell him in the morning, I don't want to go out tonight."
"Why not?"
Not wanting to explain his suspicion about being followed and sounding crazy, he just shrugged.
"What about you? No study night planned?" Naruto asked, knowing Sasuke went to study most of the time in library.
"No, I'm taking a break."
Naruto hummed at that, wondering why Sasuke wasn't going out for just fun, he refrained from asking himself.
Not wanting to just lay there on his bed, he decided to just watch a movie. Grabbing his laptop and starting he searched through his options. He eventually decided on Guardian of the Galaxy Volume 2. He couldn't believe how Marvel has been making movies funnier by every one it makes. Thor Ragnarok was more hilarious then he had anticipated but his still all time favourite favourite was Guardians. If it was because he loved Groot's cuteness, nobody needed to know that.
Naruto wondered if Sasuke would be interested in watching it too and before he could change his mind, he turned his head toward Sasuke, question already rolling out of his mouth.
"Wanna watch Guardian of the Galaxy Volume 2?"
Sasuke stilled, he was midway between rolling on his right side, facing away from Naruto. He rolled back, eyes finding Naruto's. The blonde would never confess how a thrill went through him as those dark hypnotising eyes met his.
Sasuke seemed to ponder the question as the blonde just stared at his face, not knowing how to look away. He eventually nodded and rolled out of his bed, straightening out and walking toward Naruto.
Naruto always felt something tightening in him when he watched Sasuke walking toward him. There was some kind of allure in the way as he moved, it always left Naruto with a dry mouth.
"Shift dumbass" Sasue said.
Naruto shook his head, trying to clear his mind. He shifted a bit, leaning against his pillow while Sasuke put his own pillow behind him, making himself comfortable.
As Sasuke settled Naruto started the movie, finding a comfortable position for himself too.
If the shuffling and accidental touching of limbs during movie gave him butterflies, well, no one needed to know that.
I don't want to look like I'm trying to bribe someone but seriously, Reviews help. Please review and tell me how you find this story.
Thank you for reading.