Chapter 2: School's Out

Ok so the vote for the Naruko pairs has begin.

So far these are the people that have been voted to pair with Naruko:

Percy – 8

Apollo – 4

Artemis – 3

Hermes - 3

Luke - 3

Connor - 2

Annabeth - 1

Zoe - 1

Silena - 1

Thaila - 1

Piper - 1

Reyna - 1

Clarisse - 1

Calypso - 1

Katie – 1

Travis – 1

Harem's

Harem with Percy, Luke, Connor, Travis, Apollo, and Hermes – 1 (A/N : To be honest this is my favourite harem other than one with Percy, Apollo and Luke.)

Naruko with Annabeth, Zoe, Artemis, Silena, Thaila, Piper, Reyna, Clarisse, Calypso and Katie - 1

"Character Speech"

'Character Thought'

"Monsters/Summon/Jutsu /Deity Speech"

'Monsters/Summon/Jutsu /Deity Thought'

Disclaimer: I don't own Nothing of Naruto or Percy Jackson.

The rest of the journey back was depressing, they ditched Grover as soon as they got to the bus terminal, because the rest of bus ride they listened to Grover freaking out about them was looking both of them like they were dead man and woman walking, while muttering "Why does this always happen?" And "Why does it always have to be sixth grade?"

Whenever he got upset, Grover's bladder acted up, so they weren't surprised when, as soon as they got off the bus. Grover then made a beeline for the restroom. Instead of waiting him, Percy got his suitcase, slipped outside with Naruko, and caught the first taxi uptown. "East One-hundred-and-fourth and First," Percy told the driver. Percy didn't see when Naruko make a shadow clone to wait for Grover before they left. Along the way, Percy told Naruto all about his mom. "Her name is Sally Jackson and she's the best person in the world. That also proves my theory that the best people have the rottenest luck," He said and Naruto nodded, knowing full well how true this fact was after all, as well as having heard that from him a few weeks ago.

With Grover

Grover got out of the bathroom and looked around for Percy and Naruko. He only saw Naruko with her arms in her pockets. "Hey Naruko, where's Percy?"

"He went home." 'Naruko' replied in a bored tone, making Grover's eyes widen. "Don't worry though, I went with."

"What? How? No! You are right here!" Grover freaked the poor guy looked ready to have a panic attack.

"Grover, Mr. Brunner was right. Percy is not normal but then again, I' not either." 'Naruko' explained, making Grover sweat under her unseen gaze. "Weird stuff has been going on lately and it has been going on most of Percy's life. I think that stuff is a bit normal, you know, people trying to kill you, after all, I should know." 'Naruto' said the end quietly, her mind going back to her early childhood memories. She never quite got over them completely. Then looked around them to see that the bus station was completely empty, everyone had left a while ago "Were on our way to Percy mother's house, oh and Grover, try not to be so depressing and maybe next time we won't run away." she said before dispelling herself in a flash of light. Leaving poor Grover in shock.

With Naruko and Percy

Naruko and Percy walked Percy's mom's little apartment. Percy was hoping his mom would be home from work. Instead, Smelly Gabe was in the living room, playing poker with his buddies. The television blared ESPN. Chips and beer cans were strewn all over the carpet.

"Naruko, you sure you wanna come in smelly Gabes a bastard and he might-"

"I'll be fine" Naruko said cutting him off.

Hardly looking up, Gabe said around his cigar, "So, you are home and who is your freaky friend?"

"Naruko," Percy said. "Where's my mom?"

"Working, and that's a girl" Gabe sneered. Naruko's eyebrow twitched. 'How dare he, ugly bastard' she thought. "You got any cash?" That made Percy rolled his eyes. 'No Welcome back. Good to see you. How has your life been the last six months?' He thought.

Percy noticed that Gabe had put on weight. He looked like a tusk less walrus in thrift-store clothes. He had about three hairs on his head, all combed over his bald scalp, as if that made him handsome or something. This guy managed the Electronics Mega-Mart in Queens, but he stayed home most of the time. It was a wonder why he hadn't been fired long before. He just kept on collecting pay checks, spending the money on cigars that made Percy nauseous, and on beer, of course. Always beer, Whenever Percy was home, he expected him to give his gambling funds. He called that their "guy secret." Meaning, if he told his mom, he would punch his lights out.

"I don't have any cash," Percy told him.

Gabe raised a greasy eyebrow. "You took a taxi from the bus station," he said. "Probably paid with a twenty, Got six, seven bucks in change. The somebody expects to live under this roof; he ought to carry his own weight. Am I right, Eddie?"

Eddie, the super of the apartment building, looked at Percy with a twinge of sympathy. "Come on, Gabe," he said. "The kid just got here."

"Am I right?" Gabe repeated.

Eddie scowled into his bowl of pretzels. The other two guys passed gas in harmony.

"Fi-" Naruko stopped Percy.

"No my driver dropped Percy and I here, so take this" Naruko lied throwing two hundred dollars on the table. Gabe picked it up greedily, his grubby fingers holding it to the light, his eyes widened and he licked his lips in delight before looking at Naruko. As if scanning her for any more money.

'Ew. Gross, how repulsive' thought Naruko cringing from his putrid stare.

"Hope you lose" scowled Percy

"Your report card came, brain boy!" Gabe shouted after me. "I wouldn't act so snooty!"

Naruko stayed in the living room making sure Gabe lost Every game they played

As a new game began, Percy nodded and left. He hoped Gabe would so lose, but he knew Naruko would somehow make sure of that. He slammed the door to his room, which really wasn't his room. During school months, it was Gabe's "study." The man didn't study anything in there except old car magazines, but Gabe loved shoving Percy's stuff in the closet, leaving his muddy boots on my windowsill, and doing his best to make the place smell like his nasty cologne and cigars and stale beer.

Percy dropped his suitcase on the bed. Home sweet home.

Gabe's smell was almost worse than the nightmares about Mrs. Dodds, or the sound of that old fruit lady's shears snipping the yarn. But as soon as that thought crossed his head, his legs felt weak. Percy remembered Grover's look of panic-how he'd made them promise he wouldn't go home without him. A sudden chill rolled through Percy. He felt like someone- something-was looking for him right now, maybe pounding its way up the stairs, growing long, horrible talons.

Then he heard his mom's voice. "Percy?" She opened the bedroom door, and my fears melted. "Oh, Percy" She hugged me tight. "I can't believe it. You've grown since Christmas!"

"Thanks mom." Percy said. Her red-white-and-blue Sweet on America uniform smelled like the best things in the world: chocolate, liquorice, and all the other stuff she sold at the candy shop in Grand Central. She'd brought him a huge bag of "free samples," the way she always did when he came home.

"So is that your friend out there watching Gabe lose at poker?" she laughed slightly

"Oh, that is Naruko. She's a good friend from school." Percy replied.

"Oh, so that's the Naruko you've been telling me about," Sally Jackson said softly as she hugged him again. Percy then began to tell her all about his school year at Yancy Academy. It seriously was not as bad as the headmaster said it was. He didn't really tell her much about the museum because it still freaked him out. "Did something scare you?"

"No mom." Percy lied. "But what ever happened seemed to revolve around both me and Naruko." He said making her eyes widen.

From the other room, Gabe yelled, "Hey, Sally—how about some bean dip, huh?".

You could faintly hear Naruko say calmly "Bean dip isn't going to help your losing streak."

'Figures, even after losing, he is still an arrogant bastard' Percy thought while grinding his teeth.

When Percy heard Gabe groan in the loss, he gave a weak smile. I feel like owe Naruko for this. "I have a surprise for you," Sally said. "We're going to the beach."

Percy's eyes widened. "Montauk?"

"Three nights—same cabin."

"When?" Percy asked happily.

She smiled. "As soon as I get changed."

Percy couldn't believe it. They hadn't been to Montauk the last two summers, because Gabe said there wasn't enough money. He then looked at her hopeful and said, "Can Naruko come too? I'm sure she can pay for herself."

She laughed and nodded her head. "I don't see the problem with that."

With that they left his room and walked out to see a washed out Gabe and a smirking Naruto. Gabe looked at them and regain his composer and said, "You were in there a long time."

"Oh we were just talking about the trip." Sally said happily.

Gabe's eyes got small. "The trip? You mean you were serious about that?"

"I knew it," Percy muttered. "He won't let us go."

"Of course he will, " his mom said evenly. "Your step-father is just worried about money. That's all. Besides, " she added, "Gabriel won't have to settle for bean dip. I'll make him enough seven-layer dip for the whole weekend. Guacamole. Sour cream. The works. "

Gabe softened a bit. "So this money for your trip ... It comes out of your clothes budget, right?"

"Yes, honey, " Percy mother answered.

"And you won't take my car anywhere but there and back. " continued Gabe

"We'll be very careful. " Percy's mother insisted.

Gabe scratched his double chin. "Maybe if you hurry with that seven-layer dip ... And maybe if the kid apologizes for interrupting my poker game. "

' Maybe if I kick you in your soft spot, And make you sing soprano for a week'. Percy thought.

But his mom's eyes warned him not to make Gabe mad.

'Why did she put up with this guy?' Percy wondered 'Why did she even care what he thought?'

'She could do so much better than him.' Naruko thought.

"I'm sorry, " Percy muttered. "I'm really sorry I interrupted your incredibly important poker game. Please go back to it right now. " Gabe's eyes narrowed. His tiny brain was probably trying to detect sarcasm in Percy's statement. "Yeah, whatever, " he decided. He went back to his game.

"Thank you, Percy, " him mom said. "Once we get to Montauk, we'll talk more about... Whatever you've forgot-ten to tell me, okay?"

For a moment, Percy thought he saw anxiety in her eyes-the same fear he'd seen in Grover during the bus ride, as if my mom too felt an odd chill in the air.

But then her smile returned, and Percy figured 'must have been mistaken'. She ruffled his hair and went to make Gabe his seven-layer dip. Naruko on the other hand wasn't so convinced as the gears in her mind started to turn. "Do you want to come with us Naruko" Percy asked.

"Sure" Naruko said smiling, "Hey, can I help with the bean dip"she asked walking after sally, trying to escape the thieving man as quickly as possible, he stank.

An hour later we were ready to leave. Gabe took a break from his poker game long enough to watch me lug my mom's bags to the car. He kept griping and groaning about losing her cooking-and more important, his '78 Camaro-for the whole weekend.

"Not a scratch on this car, brain boy, " he warned Percy as he loaded the last bag. "Not one little scratch." 'Like I'd be the one driving. I'm twelve.' thought Percy 'But that didn't matter to Gabe, oh, no, no. If a seagull so much as pooped on his paint job, he'd find a way to blame me.'

Watching him lumber back toward the apartment building, Percy got so angry, he did something he couldn't explain. As Gabe reached the doorway, he made the hand gesture he'd seen Grover make on the bus, a sort of warding-off-evil gesture, a clawed hand over his heart, then a shoving movement toward Gabe. The screen door slammed shut so hard it whacked him in the butt and sent him flying up the stair-case as if he'd been shot from a cannon. Maybe it was just the wind, or some freak accident with the hinges, but Percy didn't stay long enough to find out. Naruko sat on the side lines watching this amusement clear on her face. They got in the Camaro and Percy told his mother to step on it.

Our rental cabin was on the south shore, way out at the tip of Long Island. It was a little pastel box with faded curtains, half sunken into the dunes. There was always sand in the sheets and spiders in the cabinets, and most of the time the sea was too cold to swim in.

Once they got there, Naruko smiled she loved places like this. They set their stuff in the cabin that they got and relaxed sharing story's, Naruko even told Percy about Most of her life as a shinobi, Percy of course didn't belive her, until she made a Shadow Clone, which is when he almost fainted, making Naruko giggle. After he recovered Naruko asked him what was up with the blue food, which is when he told her "See, Gabe had once told my mom there was no such thing. They had this fight, which seemed like a really small thing at the time. But ever since, my mom went out of her way to eat blue." this lead to a somehow blue marsh-mellowed chubby bunny contest which Percy lost... badly. They were currently sitting around a small fire, roasting hotdogs and marshmallows.

"Mom…what was my father like." Percy asked with some courage.

"He was kind, Percy," she said. "Tall, handsome, and powerful. But gentle, too. You have his black hair, you know, and his green eyes." She fished a blue jelly bean out of her candy bag. "I wish he could see you, Percy. He would be so proud."

Percy looked a little sad at that.

"How old was I?" Percy asked. "I mean ... when he left?"

She watched the flames. "He was only with me for one summer, Percy. Right here at this beach. This cabin."

"But... he knew me as a baby."

"No, honey. He knew I was expecting a baby, but he never saw you. He had to leave before you were born." She said and then looked to Naruko, who had been silent for the conversation. "Naruko, what are your parents like?"

Naruto gave a bitter smile as the memories of her childhood came back. "I am an orphan. I never really knew my parents, they died the day I was born. But I was given some stuff of my mothers. She had... well I guess you could call it a video just in case anything happened to her. I was told she died a few hours after childbirth. I heard that my dad was the best fighter around and an all-great person, though if what I is correct, my mother wore the pants in that relationship." That made Percy chuckle a bit and his mom had a big smile on her face.

"I'm sorry about that." Sally said. "Who is talking care of you?"

"Don't be. My grandfather was taking care of my before...um..yea, but I still have my older brother." Naruko said, not wanting to tell them that he was killed. "But I have been doing pretty well on my own anyway, well living with him that is."

Then Percy had a sad look. He didn't know if his mom even wanted him around. He didn't think he could handle being alone like Naruko, even if she had her brother. "Are you going to send me away again?" Percy asked her. "To another boarding school?"

She pulled a marshmallow from the fire. "I don't know, honey." Her voice was heavy. "I think ... I think we'll have to do something."

"Because you don't want me around?" but he regretted the words as soon as they were out.

Her eyes welled with tears. She took his hand, squeezed it tight. "Oh, Percy, no. I—I have to, honey. For your own good. I have to send you away."

This made Naruko quirk an unseen eyebrow.

"Because I'm not normal," Percy suddenly said.

"You say that as if it's a bad thing, Percy. But you don't realize how important you are. I thought Yancy Academy would be far enough away. I thought you'd finally be safe."

"Safe from what?" Percy asked though when he locked eyes with her, all the memories of weird shit happening to him had surfaced.

Before anything else was said, Naruko cut in. "Percy, not being normal is not that bad. I'm…not exactly what you call normal."

Mrs. Jackson looked at her oddly and she sighed knowing that he would have to show her. " Mrs. Jackson can you cover Percy's eyes" Naruko asked. Sally nodded and covered her son's eyes making sure he could see anything. Naruko took of her hood, it was hard to bend with the hood up. Sally gasped at the beautiful girl in front of her. Naruko did a hand movement making the sand from the cabin wrap around her finger before going back as miniature bolts of lightning sparking between her fingers. Naruko stopped bending, she only had to elements, and that was pretty much lightning and earth, she quickly put her hood back up, Smiling secretly with sally, both of the smiling at each other. This is at least what Percy saw once the piece of cloth was taken off his eyes.

Percy sighed "How come I couldn't see"

"Because you'd have to see under my hood." Naruko answered it like it was the simplest thing in the world.

Percy stared at his mom "Yo-You've seen her face as in under the hood?!"Percy asked shocked. Mrs. Jackson nodded. "But NO-ONE has seen under her hood" Percy said which earned a shrug from both girls. "That's not fair, you showed me the shadow clone's with your hood on" Percy argued

'Shadow's? Could she be? No...' pondered Sally. She gave Naruko a grateful look and continued on.

"I've tried to keep you as close to me as I could," She said to Percy. "They told me that was a mistake. But there's only one other option, Percy—the place your father wanted to send you. And I just... I just can't stand to do it."

"My father wanted me to go to a special school?"

"Not a school," she said softly. "A summer camp and apparently it is a place you both need to go to."

Both Pre-teens just looked at her oddly. Naruko never heard anything about a camp when she met her mother

"I'm sorry, Percy," she said, seeing the look in his eyes. "But I can't talk about it. I—I couldn't send you to that place. It might mean saying good-bye to you for good."

"For good? But if it's only a summer camp ..." Percy trailed off as he saw the tears in his mom's eyes.

Naruko got up saying she was going to go on a walk since she could tell the two wanted to be alone.

Sally turned toward the fire, and Percy knew from her expression that if he'd asked her any more questions she would start to cry.

The Dream

That night Percy and Naruko wherever she was had a vivid dream.

It was storming on the beach, and three beautiful animals, a white horse, a golden eagle, and a black raven were trying to kill each other at the edge of the surf. The eagle swooped down and slashed the horse's muzzle with its huge talons. The horse reared up and kicked at the eagles wings. The raven went for their eyes pecking and gouging. As they fought, the ground rumbled, and a monstrous voice chuck-led somewhere beneath the earth, goading the animals to fight harder.

Percy ran toward them, knowing he had to stop them from killing each other, but he was running in slow motion. He knew he'd be too late. Percy saw the eagle dive down, its beak aimed at the horse's.

Naruko looked and saw Percy running to help the animals, In slow motion...

Naruko stared her mind going a mile a minute, but before she could even lift her hand to help stop them, she woke up.

Naruko woke up breathing heavy 'Something's wrong' she thought as Percy woke up in the bed nex to her. Outside, it really was storming; the kind of storm that cracks trees and blows down houses. There was no horse or eagle on the beach, just lightning making false daylight, and twenty-foot waves pounding the dunes like artillery. With the next thunder-clap, his mom woke. She sat up, eyes wide, and said "Hurricane." Percy knew that was crazy. Long Island never sees hurricanes this early in the summer. But the ocean seemed to have forgotten. Over the roar of the wind, he heard a distant bellow, an angry, tortured sound that made his hair stand on end. Then a much closer noise, like mallets in the sand. A desperate voice—someone yelling, pounding on the cabin door.

Sally sprang out of bed in her nightgown and threw open the lock. Grover stood framed in the doorway against a backdrop of pouring rain. But he wasn't... He wasn't exactly same Grover, he knows.

"Searching all night," Grover said to Percy. "What were two thinking?"

Sally looked at Percy in terror—not scared of Grover, but of why he'd come. "Percy," she shouted. "What happened at school? What didn't you tell me?" Percy was frozen, looking at Grover. He couldn't understand what he was seeing.

"O Zeu kai alloi theoi!" Grover yelled. "It's right behind me! Didn't you tell her?" Percy was too shocked to register that Grover just cursed in Ancient Greek, and he did understand him perfectly. He was too shocked to wonder how Grover had gotten here by himself in the middle of the night. Because Grover didn't have his pants on—and where his legs should be...

Sally looked at him sternly and talked in a tone Percy had never heard her use before: "Percy, Tell me now!"

Percy stammered something about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs. Dodds, and his mom stared at him, her face deathly pale in the flashes of lightning.

She grabbed her purse, tossed Percy, his rain jacket, and said, "Get in the car. All of you. Go!"

Grover ran for the Camaro—but he wasn't running, exactly. He was trotting, shaking his shaggy hindquarters, and suddenly his story about a muscular disorder in his legs made sense to Percy. He understood how he could run so fast and still limp when he walked. Because where his feet should be, there were no feet. There were cloven hooves.

Naruko jumped into the back seat of the car soaked, 'Kyuubi! You hear me! You need to get her now! I have a bad feeling' Naruko mentally messaged kyuubi.

'Got it Kit' Kyuubi replied quickly before cutting of their mental convocation, as the car drove into the night.

Wa-do-ya think?

A little boring but it'tle get better

Keep voting!

I love compliments!, and Comments! lol

^.^