Chapter 15

The trip to Denver was shorter than the trip to St Louis and they arrived in the city the next day. They had 7 days left to retrieve the bolt and return it to Zeus by the Summer Solstice or World War Three was going to break out.

All through out the train journey Annabeth had been glancing to and from Naruto as her mind was going into overdrive. The incident n the Archway was still fresh in her mind and that sudden increase in strength and bloodlust from Naruto had really frightened her. So much so that at first she thought he became a completely different person.

It was his eyes those that scared her the most. Ruby red, the color of blood. It was frightening. She had never seen that colour eyes before and the shade of red was just in a league of its own. They were eyes that held power but also so much hate.

Naruto meanwhile knew she kept glancing at him no doubt trying to figure him out and didn't blame her. He had put the fear for death in her. He just prayed to whoever was listening that he didn't use the fox's charka again while on the quest.

When the train arrived in Denver and the group got out, the first thing they wanted to do was to go and get something to eat. There was nothing wrong with eating food from the train but it was just the same thing over and over again and right now they could all go for some cheese burgers.

Not only were they hungry but they also really needed a shower. None of them had showed since they left Camp Half Blood and although Naruto and Grover would not say anything, everyone really was giving off a bad odour at the moment. So much so it was affecting their senses.

"We should contact the camp," Annabeth suddenly said getting the others attention. "Chiron will want an update from us and to make sure that we are all okay."

"Makes sense," Percy said. "We can't use phone right?"

Annabeth shook her head. "Don't worry. We won't be using phones to contact him."

Both Naruto and Percy looked at her a little oddly. They doubted she was going to write a letter to the camp since it could probably take the rest of their time to actually get to camp.

For the next half an hour they were walking through the down town area as Annabeth was scanning every building and side walk. They all were tugging on their collar of their shirts since the air here was hot and dry.

Eventually after some searching Annabeth pointed towards found an empty do-it-yourself car wash. They veered toward the stall farthest from the street since they didn't want to take any chance with mortals walking and driving around.

"Geez I know we all reek a bit but isn't a car wash a bit much," Naruto said chuckling as Annabeth whacked him on the arm as Grover pulled out some sort of spray gun.

"Its seventy-five cents," he grumbled. "I've only got two quarters left. Annabeth?"

"Don't look at me," she said. "The dining car wiped me out. You Naruto?"

"Urm," he said digging into his pocket before handing over some change to Grover." I don't have much change. Will this do?"

Grover looked it over and smiled. "Yep perfect," he said before he fed the quarters and turned the knob of the spray gun to FINE MIST. IM-ing at its finest"

"Instant messaging?" both Naruto and Percy said not really believing what they are hearing.

"Iris-messaging," Annabeth corrected. "The rainbow goddess Iris carries messages for the gods. If you know how to ask, and she's not too busy, she'll do the same for half-bloods."

"You summon the goddess with a spray gun?" Percy asked since the idea sounded a little far fetched. Naruto just shrugged. Who to say you could not summon a goddess with a spray gun. He had seen weirder.

Grover pointed the nozzle in the air and water hissed out in a thick white mist. "Unless you know an easier way to make a rainbow, this is the only away and we don't really have time to wait for it to rain while the sun is out."

"Now the drachma," Annabeth said digging into her pocket before flicking the coin into the mist. They all watched as it disappeared in a golden shimmer.

"Half-Blood Hill," Annabeth requested.

At first nothing happened until slowly an image began to appear in the mist made screen. Slowly Camp Half blood began to come into view. They knew it was the camp because they all recognised the strawberry field in the background along with the big house.

Slowly a figure began to come into view. They all squinted their eyes at first before they saw long black hair flowing from side to side. Walking past the screen was Silena.

"Silena," Naruto called catching the girls attention. Said girl whipped around to look around and saw Naruto and the others through the iris message.

"Naruto, everyone your all okay," she said happily as she came closer to the iris message. Naruto smiled happy to see the daughter of Aphrodite and tried to hide the small blush on his face though the other three all saw it and smirked a little. No doubt planning on teasing him about it later.

"How are you all so far? You all look okay? No injuries I hope?"

"Well other than our smell we are all okay though it has not exactly been an easy trip so far. How is everything at camp?" Annabeth asked.

They all got a little worried when they saw Silena's downcast look. "It's not good. Word broke out about what's happening on Olympus and now everyone is taking sides. The Apollo and Aphrodite cabin have sided with Poseidon while the Athena and Ares cabin have sided with Zeus. The other cabins are slowly beginning to join sides too. It's not good right now."

"Is Chiron around at the moment? We need to speak with him," Percy asked but Silena shook her head.

"A fight broke out not too long ago between the Apollo cabin and the Ares cabin. There were some injuries and Chiron is trying to get control of the situation."

They all frowned until they saw another figure appear from behind Silena. They saw the sandy blonde hair and a bronze sword swaying from his hip.

"Silena, Chiron needs you. Some of the Aphrodite girls are getting in an argument with some of the Athena kids. He needs you to help cool down the situation," he said revealing himself to be Luke.

"Luke," Annabeth and Grover said getting wide eyes from the son of Hermes.

"Percy!" he called with his scarred face breaking into a grin. "Is that Annabeth, too? And Naruto and Grover? Thank the gods! Are you guys okay? We have all been so worried."

"Tired but were okay," Naruto said to the older blonde.

"We're ... uh ... fine," Annabeth stammered trying to sort her hair and clothes out with a small tinge of red on her cheeks.

"I better go. I better stop my siblings from doing anything they will later regret," she said before giving them all a small wave. "Take care and stay safe guys. Bye Naruto," she said with a small blush on her face before she disappeared from view.

Luke whistled. "Man you two must have a serious crush on each other. She has not shut up about hoping your okay ever since you left," Luke said causing Naruto to stumble.

"She's worried about me?" he thought before he spoke up to Luke.

"S-Shut up L-Luke," he said making them all laugh. As they did though a big Lincoln Continental pulled into the car wash with its stereo turned to maximum hip-hop. As the car slid into the next stall, the bass from the subwoofers vibrated so much, it shook the pavement.

"What's that noise?" Luke asked covering his ear a little.

Annabeth growled. "I'll take care of it."

"No," Naruto said putting his hand out in front of her. "I'll do it. You talk to Luke," he said getting a surprised look from Annabeth before she simply nodded.

Naruto waved goodbye to Luke before he made is way over to the car.

The owner of the car was young guy who looked to be in his early twenties. In the passenger seat must have been a friend of his since they were the same age.

"Excuse me," Naruto said walking up to the driver who was just stepping out of his car. "Could you turn it down a little? Your kind music is a bit loud."

The guy looked at Naruto and sneered at him. "Get lost kid," he said shoving Naruto out of the way. As some of the other people getting their car washed looked over at the scene.

"I will ask again please turn the music down," Naruto said as the driver stopped and turned around to look at Naruto. When he did his friend got out of the car.

"Hey what's the holdup?" He asked.

"Some snot nose brat who doesn't know when to keep his nose out of other people business. I said get lost you little punk."

"I'll leave when you turn that music down," Naruto said again.

The driver just growled a little while his friend walked around the car and stood next to him. "You're playing with fire brat. I suggest you leave and stop bothering us," he said loudly voicing over himself over the music pulling out a small swiss army knife from his pocket. Both young men smirked thinking they had him scared but frowned when they saw Naruto just raised an eyebrow.

"You're going to have to do better than that," Naruto said as he as quick as lightning snatched the knife from the man's hand. He looked it over before he sheathed the small knife away. "I have seen better."

"Little brat," the second guy said as he went to hit Naruto but Naruto just leaned sideways letting the punch go past him before catching the man's arm and throwing him over his shoulder and onto the pavement.

Naruto looked back and saw the driver went to punch him again causing Naruto to sigh before grinning. "I warned you."

The hit easily missed before Naruto appeared behind the driver, grabbed the guy's underwear and pulled it and far as he could causing an ear piercing girly scream to cry out through the car wash and people winced.

Naruto punched the guy in the gut before he pulled down the car window and threw the guy half in it with him being balanced on the car window. Naruto pulled the window up a little causing the guy to be stuck.

"Try to be more polite to other around you," Naruto said as he ripped the radio out of the car completely stopping the music and chucked it on the seat.

"Have a nice day," Naruto said as he walked away and headed back to the others missing the amazed looks people were giving him.

He arrived back and saw the Iris message had just disappeared and saw the other waiting for him.

"How did it go?" Grover asked getting a shrug from Naruto.

"It was fine. They happily complied," he said smiling which Annabeth accepted although Percy and Grover were a little put off by the smile. They had seen that smile before and it was the smile he wore after some kind of prank or beat down. They figured it was best not to ask what happened.

"Well now that we are done here we can go. I'm starving and I need food," Annabeth said with everyone nodding in agreement.

"Sure let's go. I think I saw a diner nearby," Grover said leading the way out of the car park.

As they left Percy, Annabeth and Grover did not see a guy unconscious on the floor and another stuck in a window with his pants around his ankles as he struggled to get out as people laughed at him.

A Little While Later

Naruto, Annabeth, Grover and Percy at around a small table at a nearby diner they found as looked over the menus. It was small place, one of those typical highway diners you would find that the truck driver would stop at but they were so hungry they were not going to be picky. As soon as they entered the place the smell from the kitchen had them hooked already.

"You guys know what you're having?" Naruto said putting his menu down as the other three nodded. As soon as this meal was over they needed to shower. Right now the thing Naruto would enjoy most was shower and hot water to loosen his muscles.

The rest were the same. They were all feeling a little stiff after the few days they had.

"Yeah I've picked. Are you sure you have enough money left Naruto? I hate that you keep having to pay for us," Grover asked with Annabeth and Percy agreeing. If Naruto hadn't been with them they would have had to think of some kind of sob story.

"It's fine. It's what I brought the money along for so I don't really care how we spend it. Besides I brought plenty with me. We should be fine for the rest of the trip if I ration it out correctly. "

They sat that and talked before after a few minutes a waitress walked over and with a small notepad and pen in her hand.

"Can I take your orders dears?" she said getting a nod from them all and motioning for Annabeth to start.

"Yeah can I have-" Annabeth started before her voice got drowned out by the sudden appearance of a loud engine. They along with everyone else in the diner looked out the window to see a giant motorcycle that looked built like a tank appear in the parking lot and a big man get of it and make his way to the diner.

When he came in everyone tensed a little. The guy was huge in the muscle kind of way sense. He made pro wrestler look like kids compared to him. However despite his physical appearance Naruto could feel enormous power radiating from this guy. Whoever he was, he was not someone you wanted to anger.

He was wearing black jeans, combat boots, a leather duster, and a red muscle shirt with a bulletproof vest and an iron padlock necklace around his neck. He was wears red tinted wrap around sunglasses around his eyes.

His gaze drifted all around before he measly swung his arm. When he did all the mortal stopped looking at him and went back to what they were doing.

The group saw him grin their way before he moved towards them. He pulled up a seat before placing it next to their table.

"Don't worry kiddies. I got this," he said surprising them and looked at the waitress.

"Are you going to take their orders sweetheart?" he asked in a gruff tone.

Quickly the group made their orders before the man put some gold drachmas in the waitress's hand who just looked at the coins. That should cover it," he said.

"But sir these are-"

He pulled out a giant knife and began looking it over and gave her the evil eye before she made an eeping sound and quickly left.

The whole group looked at him in surprise while Naruto and Percy were looking at the guy with a little disgust.

Neither could explain it but they suddenly felt this wave of anger rushing through them. Like they both wanted to start a fight with the nearest person.

"You know you shouldn't threaded innocent people like that. That lady didn't deserve that kind of treatment," Naruto said.

The man just snorted and sheathed his dagger. "Doesn't matter to me, so stop crying me a river," the man said coldly before a wide grin spread on his face.

"Look whoever you are your interrupting are dinner so we would appreciate it if you left," Percy said chipping in. Both boys turned to look at Annabeth and Grover but saw they had wide eyes and were looking at the man a little fearfully.

Annabeth and Grover's eyes flashed both boys a warning. "Percy, Naruto, this is—"

The biker raised his hand which stopped the two from talking.

"It's okay," he said. "I don't mind a little attitude from time to time. Its ice to see some demigods still got some guts on them. As long as you remember who's the boss. Do you know who I am, little cousin?" He asked looking at Percy.

Both boys looked at him and frowned before their eyes widened in realisation. That grin he had on face was a carbon copy of the grin that Clarisse and her sibling wore.

"You're Ares" Percy said getting a nod from the god.

Naruto whistled. "So what do we owe the pleasure of meeting the God of War?" Naruto asked. "I doubt you simply came here to say hi."

Ares grunted. "Nothing get past you does it hunter boy. Have to admit I was a little surprised to find out dear old Arty had a kid with some poor sap. Always thought she batted for the other team if you catch my drift."

Under the table Naruto was clenching his fist. Very quickly he was beginning to dislike Ares. The guy had been here only a minute and Naruto already felt like tearing this guy head off. His eye flickered red for a second before they went back to blue.

However Ares saw it and internally smirked.

"Am I getting on your nerves their little jinchuriki? Why don't you tap into that old fox's power and we have good old rumble outside in the parking lot."

Grover looked at Ares in surprise that he knew what Naruto contained but figured all the gods must have been made aware of the Nine Tails.

Annabeth had thought racing all through her head. "There's that word again. Jinchuriki and he mentioned a fox. What the hell has a fox got to do with Naruto? Other then the whisker marks, I just don't understand."

"Don't tempt me," Naruto said gritting his teeth a little.

"Why are you here?" Percy asked butting in trying to defuse the situation.

Ares turned is head to look at Percy. "Ahh old seaweeds kid," he said getting a tick mark appears above Percy's eyebrow. "Don't worry its nothing to strenuous. I simply have a proposition for you. I need you to do me a favor."

"What favor could we do for a god?" Percy asked with Naruto and the others listening intently.

"Something a god doesn't have time to do himself. It's nothing much. I left my shield at an abandoned water park here in town. I was going on a little ... date with my girlfriend. We were interrupted. I left my shield behind. I want you to fetch it for me."

"Why don't you go back and get it yourself?" Naruto asked. "To lazy to get off your ass?"

Ares looked at Naruto as a look of anger crossed his face. The fire in his eye sockets glowed a little hotter and if they got any hotter his shades would have melted.

"Why don't I turn you into a prairie dog and run you over with my Harley? Because I don't feel like it. When a god tell you to do something. You do it brat."

"Well get someone else to do it then. We're not some dogs you can order around. Besides we already have a quest," Percy said glaring at the God of War.

"A god is giving you an opportunity to prove yourself, Percy Jackson, Naruto Uzumaki. Will you prove to everyone that your just two coward?" He leaned forward. "Or maybe you only fight when there's a river to dive into, so your daddy can protect you or when your mother or grandmother is watching over you," Ares said taunting the two boys who he could tell their angers were begining to spike since Naruto's eyes were flashing red more and more and the water around them was beginning to bubble.

"Percy, Naruto. As much as I hate to say it Ares has a point If a gods ask us to do something, we have to do it. The quest will have to be put on momentary hold."

"She has a point," Grover said. "Percy you already have Zeus unhappy with you. You don't need another god hating you."

"Listen to your friend's punk. Besides if you do this for you I can guarantee you all two thing," he said getting raised eyebrows from everyone.

"One I will get you some transportation for the rest of the way to Los Angeles. And second information on your mom," he said looking at Percy who went a little wide eyed.

"My mom?"

He grinned. "That got your attention. The water park is a mile west on Delancy. You can't miss it. Look for the Tunnel of Love ride."

"What interrupted your date?" Percy asked. "Something scare you off? Not all high and might are you."

Ares bared his teeth as Grover and Annabeth were looking at Naruto with both fear and amazement. They could not believe how fearless they both were at the moment daring to talk to the God of War like they were.

"I swear these two have balls of steel," Grover thought.

"You're lucky you met me, punk, and not one of the other Olympians. They're not as forgiving of rudeness as I am."

"I'll meet you back here when you're done. Don't disappoint me," Ares said sneering before he looked at Naruto.

"Know it's a damn shame your mother fell in love the son of Hestia, your father. If she wanted to know what a real man felt like she should have come to me," he said pushing Naruto's buttons. And Ares knew it was working.

Naruto stood from his seat and his fist went to punch Ares in the jaw before Percy, Annabeth and Grover literally jumped on him to stop him from doing so. Punching a god was not a smart thing to do. Even Percy knew that despite wanting nothing better than to deck Ares himself as well.

"Let me go. I won't let him insult my mom and dad like that," Naruto said fighting against the three struggling to hold him back.

Ares chuckled before he clicked is finger. In the blink of an eye Ares had disappeared and the group was now alone.

As soon as he did the waitress walked back over and her eyebrow rose when she saw Annabeth, Grover and Percy had dog piled on Naruto. They all guessed the mist was beginning to work since she didn't look so afraid as she did before.

"There a problem here?" she asked as they slowly got off Naruto and sat back in their seats.

"No miss,"Grover said as the waitress gave them their meals before she walked away.

As they began to eat they looked outside to see the motor cycle had disappeared as well. Little weird since it was more like a tank then a bike.

"Not good," Grover said as he drank his shake. "Ares sought us out. This is really not good. Ares is one of the least friendly gods there is."

"I would have never guessed," both boy said since Ares was really pissing them off to the point where Naruto was about to start a fight with the jerk.

"It's probably some kind of trick," I said. "Let's just forget Ares and continue with the quest. Let Ares get his damn shield back. If he didn't want to leave it behind then he should not have taken it with him in the first place," Percy said eating his fries but Annabeth was shaking her head.

"We can't," Annabeth said. "Look, I hate Ares as much as anybody, but you don't ignore the gods unless you want serious bad fortune."

"But this water park ... he acted almost scared. What would make a war god run away like that?"

"I'm afraid we'll have to find out," Annabeth said before it went silent and they continued with their meals.

Annabeth and Grover looked at Naruto and realised just close they were to seeing an all out fight between Ares and the shinobi demigod. Grover had seen Naruto's eye flicker red and wondered if that was the power of the Nine Tailed Fox that was causing it. If so then thank the gods that a fight between the two was averted. As strong as Naruto was, Grover doubted Naruto could fight on par with a god.

Annabeth meanwhile was frowning internally. She too briefly saw his eyes flicker red just like she saw back on the archway. It just brought up more question and it was driving her insane. She hated not being in the know and not being able to figure something out.

Later on

After their meal was finished they begrudgingly made their way to the water park that Ares told them to go to. They didn't want to do the stupid little side quest but the last thing they needed was Ares causing them any more problems.

The sun was slowly setting behind the mountains when they arrived at the water park. They looked at the sign and Grover told them it said WATERLAND.

The main gate was padlocked and topped with barbed wire. Inside, huge dry water slides and tubes and pipes curled everywhere, leading to empty pools. Old tickets and advertisements fluttered around along the ground. The place had been barren for some time. With night coming on, the place looked sad and creepy.

Naruto climbed the fence and cut off and removed the barbed wire and threw it away. The rest followed after him and landed safely inside the water park as they began to look for the tunnel of love.

"If Ares brings his girlfriend here for a date," Percy said, staring up at the barbed wire, "I'd hate to see what she looks like."

"I would not say that if I was you Percy. As much as I don't like Ares, the last thing I would want to do is get on the bad side of his girlfriend."

"What do you mean?" Percy asked.

'Percy his girlfriend his Aphrodite, the Goddess of Love. Despite not being one of the more dangerous gods, she is one of the most temperamental. She can mess with you in the worst of ways," Annabeth said getting a nod from Grover.

"But I thought she was married to the blacksmith god?" Percy said trying to remember the name. "She is married to Hephaestus isn't she?"

"She is married and yet she cheats on her husband. Kind of defeats the point of being married doesn't it?" Naruto said. "I thought she was the goddess of love. Not lust."

"Naruto I wouldn't insult Aphrodite like that. Like I said, she can be very temperamental."

"I'm not insulting her. I just find it a little odd that the goddess of Love who should care about things like marriage yet she cheats on her husband with an ass like Ares."

"Well, you know," Annabeth said. "Hephaestus was crippled when he was a baby, thrown off Mount Olympus by Zeus. So I guess he is not the easiest person to be married too."

"I thought that was Hera who threw him off?"

Annabeth shrugged. "The stories vary at whom actually did it?"

"He caught them together once. I mean, literally caught them, in a golden net, and invited all the gods to come and laugh at them. Probably why Aphrodite and Ares meet in such weird locations."

Naruto and Percy couldn't help but smirk. Both just thought "Good on you Hephaestus."

"Well from what I have heard about Hephaestus I think he sound like a cool guy. There is more to someone then just looks. There is smarts which Hephaestus definantly sounds like he has. There is being kind person and having a kind heart. A lot of people only see what's on the surface. Most people don't realise beauty not just skin deep."

The three looked at Naruto a little surprised. "Wow that was deep," Percy said while Naruto shrugged.

"Just saying it how it is."

As the group talked they came across an old souvenir shop and saw racks of unused clothing inside.

"Clothes," Annabeth said. "Fresh clothes staring happily inside the shop.

"Yeah," Percy said. "But you can't just—"

"Watch me." Before they knew it Annabeth was inside, took a load of clothes and disappeared in one of the changing room.

The three boys looked at each other before shrugging and did the same.

Minutes later they all came out wearing WATERLAND merchandise. Naruto had sealed his clothes away into an empty storage seals he had on him and happily did the same for the other before they continued looking around.

They continued looking for another ten minutes and Naruto couldn't help but laugh at some of the weird name the rises had. There was Ankle Biter Island, Head Over Wedgie, and Dude, Where's My Swimsuit?

"There," Annabeth said pointing and bringing Naruto out of his thoughts to see an empty pool that would've been awesome for skateboarding or rollerblading. It was at least fifty yards across and shaped like a bowl.

Around the rim, a dozen bronze statues of Cupid stood guard with wings spread and bows ready to fire. On the opposite side from the group, there was a tunnel opened up, probably where the water flowed into when the pool was full. The sign above it read, THRILL RIDE O' LOVE: THIS IS NOT YOUR PARENTS' TUNNEL OF LOVE!

"Guys, look."

Right at the bottom of the bowl shaped pool was a pink-and-white two-seater boat with a canopy over the top and little hearts painted all over it.

"I'm guessing that's the shield Ares wants," Naruto said pointing to a bronze shield next to the boat.

"Grover you smell any monster?" Percy asked to which Grover shook his head negatively. Naruto was the same. He couldn't smell any monsters either so there were none around in the Water Park.

"It can't be that easy right?" Grover said with the others shaking their head.

"Someone has to go and get it" Annabeth said as she examined one of the cubid statues and found a little Eta symbol on it.

"I'll go," Percy said before Naruto could speak up. Naruto felt a little proud of his friend. Since the start of this quest slowly Percy was beginning to accept who he was and his fear was slowly beginning to dwindle. It was still there but it was a big improvement to how he was only a few days ago. "I and Annabeth can get it while you guys stay up here and keep us covered."

"WHAT?" Annabeth asked looking at Percy with a blush in her cheeks. You want me to go with you on the 'Thrill Ride of Love'? How embarrassing is that? What if somebody saw me?"

"Wow Percy making your move already?" Naruto asked causing the green eyed boy to blush and Annabeth to glare at Naruto while Grover snickered at the looks on their face.

"It's n-not like t-that," Percy stammered out trying to get his blush under control while Naruto and Grover laughed at their friend's embarrassment. "Fine ill do it myself," he said as he began to walk down before Annabeth slowly followed after him.

"Not a word," she said glaring at the two who threw their hands up in defense.

They reached the boat and Percy went to grab the shield until he saw a pink scarf lying beside it. Naruto saw him pick it up and smell the scarf before Annabeth yanked it from his hands.

"Oh, no you don't. Stay away from that love magic," She said as she stuck the scarf into her pocket.

Percy looked at her a little confused as Naruto and Grover rolled their eyes at how naive he was. His hand went to pick it up before it touched something invisible and he heard a snapping sound.

Everyone's head and whipped their heads to look at Percy as Annabeth quickly moved to stand next to him figuring out what he just did.

"It's a trap. The eta symbol is a symbol for Hephaestus. How did I not see it sooner?" Annabeth said berating herself.

"No wonder Ares was scared to come here," Naruto thought as the others were beginning to think the same.

Noise erupted all around them as the sound of a million gears began grinding, as if the whole pool was turning into one giant machine.

"This can't be good," Grover muttered as everyone turned to look at the statues cupid statues that were around the ride.

Before anyone could suggest even taking cover, the cupid shot arrows which strangely hit each other. They fired at each other, across the rim of the pool that had silky cables trailed from the arrows, arcing over the pool and anchoring where they landed to form a huge golden asterisk. Then smaller metallic threads started weaving together magically between the main strands, making a net that covered the pool and trapping Annabeth hand Percy inside.

"Okay now I have a real bad feeling," Naruto thought as the silk which turned out to be golden ropes began tying around Percy and Annabeth who were stuck in the bowl. All around the cupids had their heads tipped out as cameras began to appear out of them.

"Live to Olympus in one minute ... Fifty-nine seconds, fifty-eight ..."

"No," Annabeth yelled as Naruto and Grover tried to cut the rope but it was proving to be futile. "If this make it live to Olympus we will look like fools."

Naruto hacked away at the ropes but they his hunting knives just weren't proving to be strong another to cut through the gold laced ropes. It was then that little metallic object began pouring into the bowl. One crawled onto Naruto's legs and Naruto got a good look at it. He paled slightly and looked at Annabeth. "Oh she is not gonna like that."

As soon as he said it he heard a loud scream of terror shouted "SP-SP-SPIDERS!"

He looked at Annabeth and saw she had jumped onto Percy who was swinging away at the metallic spiders with riptide and had pretty much forced him to give her a piggy back. Naruto had to stop from laughing since he knew this was not the time to laugh.

"Annabeth I can't breathe," Percy said as Annabeth's arm was gripping tightly around Percy's neck but the girl was more concerned with the metallic spiders which she tried to kick away.

Naruto saw Percy climb in the boat with Annabeth clinging too his back as the countdown now went "Thirty, twenty-nine."

"Oh crap we there has to be a way to get them out," Naruto said as Grover was still pulling the golden rope. He knew his bow and arrows were no good in this kind of situation and he was not sure if his current wind jutsu's had the destructive power to destroy it. His rasengan would probably to more harm to Percy and Annabeth so that was out.

"What do I do?" Naruto thought gripping his hunting knives as they glinted in the night before an idea hit him.

His blades were not only made of celestial bronze but also chakra metal. He completely forgot about that little fact and he wanted to berate himself for not realising it sooner.

He knew that if he wanted to break through the golden ropes he would not only need to use charka, but the wind as well to give it that extra bit of power.

"Okay," he thought as he tried to focus. He held his two blades together in front of him and concentrated. First he slowly poured his chakra into the blades and could feel the chakra beginning to wrap around the knives as if a second layer of metal was coating it.

"Okay that the chakra done. Now for the wind." He focused seen more when he tried to remember what Asuma had taught him in the few days that he helped Naruto with his wind manipulation. It was like two pieces grinding against each other.

"Fifteen, fourteen," the loudspeaker called as Percy had summoned water from the piping around them to drench and knock away the metallic spiders but the little buggers were still swarming out. There had to of been hundred if not thousands of them in the small bowl shaped pool. Percy was effectively fighting them off on his own since Annabeth was paralyzed with fear. She was trying to swing her dagger at them and kick them away but they could all tell she was struggling to overcome her fear.

Then where the spiders were being poured out, metallic snakes and scorpions also began to pour out. Hephaestus really did not want Ares and Aphrodite to have a good time.

"Eleven, ten."

Naruto had to hurry. If they aired of the Hephaestus TV they would no doubt be the laughing stock of the entire Greek world and no one at camp would ever let them live it down. The metallic snakes were making clicking like hiss sounds as they slithered rather noisily towards the boat When they tried to climb in Percy just swung Riptide at them cutting them into piece. However there was just so many being poured out that it didn't matter if a few got destroyed.

As he focused Naruto could slowly feel a breeze hitting his hand as wind slowly began to wrap around the blade like another layer to the blade. The wind kept getting stronger and stronger until it began to whip around furiously around the blade that caught the attention of the others.

"Woh," Grover said looking at the wind enforced hunting blades.

"Nine, eight."

"Now," Naruto thought as he raised his blades high above his head and swung down and across the golden net with as much as strength as he could muster at the time.

The result was instantaneous. As soon as the wind enforced blade hit the golden rope, they shattered and snapped. Naruto grinned thankfully before he kept hacking away at the golden net and made a big enough hole in the net for people to be able to climb out through.

"Annabeth, Percy now is your chance to get out," he said as both demi gods looked over and saw the hole in the net.

"Hold on," Percy said to Annabeth who quickly complied as she kicked one of the metallic snakes. Percy ran forwards trying not to slip on the ground from the puddles of water and jumped as high as he could.

When he did Grover and Naruto's hands were there waiting and grabbed a hold of him. Naruto pulled Percy up while Grover grabbed a hold of Annabeth and pulled her up.

"Two, one," the loud speaker said as the scene became live on Olympus as the cameras began to zoom in on them.

Annabeth who was deeply unhappy and got up and stormed over to one of the camera's with and let her anger out. "ARE YOU CRAZY? WE COULD HAVE BEEN KILLED YOU DAMN FOOL. IF I EVER SEE YOU HEPHAESTUS I AM GOING TO TEAR YOU A KNEW ONE!" she shouted surprising all three boys.

"Don't insult a god she says," they all thought before they had to chuckle as Annabeth grabbed a hold of a piece of piping and went around destroying all of the video cameras.

After Annabeth let her anger and frustration out on the camera's Percy showed the shield to everyone who just frowned at the weapon. "We came all of this way for just a regular bronze shield," Grover said as Naruto just shrugged.

"Well whatever. It's done with now so let's just get this back to Ares and get back to the quest. I'm tired and I just want to be done with Ares," Percy said with Naruto quickly agreeing.

"The guys is a world class ass if there ever was one," Naruto said.

"I wouldn't say that Naruto," Annabeth said while Naruto just deadpanned at the girl.

"This coming from the girl that just threatened to tear Hephaestus a new one," he said making her blush a little before turning her head away.

They fell into a small silence as they leaned over and looked in the bowl shaped pool and watched as the the small metallic creature stop pouring out of the pipes before all they all began to just disappear and turn to dust. No doubt they had served their purpose in freaking out their victim.

"Do you think he knew about the spiders?" Annabeth said getting a shrug from all three.

"Your guess is as good as ours," Percy said making Annabeth scowl. She disliked Ares but now she loathed him. Maybe they should have let Naruto punch him back in the diner.

The group walked away from the THRILL RIDE O' LOVE ride and made their way out of the WATER PARK to meet back up with the very much hated God of War.

Mount Olympus

In his temple of Olympus Ares frowned a little when he saw the group had managed to get back his shield. Secretly he was hoping they would die but better luck next time was his thinking.

He was about to head to the parking lot to retrieve his shield and had a bag held in his right hand that he was preparing to give to the demi gods when he heard two loud knocks on his palace doors. Raising an eyebrow and dropping the bag delicately on the ground, he went over to see who it be.

When he did and he opened the doors he was met with two fists to the face which knocked him to the ground. Getting out of his daze he gritted his teeth angrily until he saw an angry Athena and Artemis standing in front of him with their feet planted on his chest.

"So you thought it was a good idea to send our children to retrieve your worthless shield and make my daughter have to face her biggest fear because you were to scared and lazy to do it yourself," Athena said with a sickly sweet smile.

"Oh shit," was Ares thinking before Artemis glared down at him with a smirk on her face. She was very angry at the things she had heard Ares say to Naruto and at the time she two wanted to punch the war god for insult Minato and from not staying away from her son like she told him to do.

"Word of advice Ares," she said with her silver eyes glaring dagger at him. "Don't mess with our children."

Ares eyes went wide when he saw their fists coming straight towards his face again and in an unfamiliar move, he scrunched his eyes for impact.

"I might be here a while," he thought before he readied for impact.

Even Ares was no match for the force of two angry mothers as the sound of one thorough beating sounded out through Olympus.

Hephaestus Workshop.

Hephaestus was tinkering around with his current project when a smirk suddenly appeared on his face and fist pumped the air.

"Why do I feel happy all of a sudden?" he thought before he shrugged it off and went back to work.

Chapter 15 Completed

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