Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Percy Jackson and the Olympians.

Sun's Heir, Death's Guardian II: A Hero's Peril

XVII

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. 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, something only two people had obtained: The Sage of Six Paths and Naruto Uzumaki (due to a battle shared in Hades).

With the shield gone though . . .

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 forced servant of Madara roaring as it became large enough to rival mountains in size. 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!"

"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.

"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."

"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.

"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."

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.

So am I right to assume you're going to kick his ass? Helios asked.

"Damn straight," said Naruto softly. His words had Sasuke stopping in his tracks and turning to face the blond. 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. 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. 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.

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. 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).

And he had to go and take that from me, Naruto thought as his gaze went back to his friend. 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. 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'. 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."

"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. The Uchiha, when he saw this, felt his eyes widen.

What is-?

"Nothing can withstand the power of an Eclipse," said Naruto informatively. "Not even your false Kusanagi."

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. 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. 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.

"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. The only way to extinguish a shadow was to introduce some light, and so he did.

This is insane! Sasuke thought as he lowered his arm and glared at his one-time friend. 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. 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.

"I thought we were fighting," said Sasuke with a scowl as his arms trembled under Naruto's superior physical strength. At this rate, he may have to use his Susanoo just to put the dumbass down.

"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."

"Fuck you, Dobe!"

"Thanks for the offer, but I've already got a girlfriend."

Sasuke released a cry of rage as he began losing his ground against Naruto's strength. 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. 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.

"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. 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. Especially after Sasuke caused Kyubi to go into hiding by fucking with his shield.

Speaking of which, Naruto's eyes narrowed at Sasuke's blade, trying to figure out how that happened.

"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."

"Oh dear gods, you've got an ultimate technique, too?" Naruto bemoaned, putting his left hand on his face. 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?"

"Susanoo is my guardian deity," said Sasuke, turning fully to look at the bored looking and annoyed face of Naruto. "It cannot be destroyed by any external means. The game is over, Naruto. Your little light show won't win this fight."

"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."

"This is all extremely fascinating, Sasuke, but I've sort of got this thing to do so can we hurry it up a bit?"

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.

Holy hell! Helios exclaimed. What is this thing?

"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. 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."

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)

" . . . 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.

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. That meant that Orochimaru – or one of his cronies – had defaced his mother's grave. 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.

"I thought we were fighting," said Sasuke, snapping the irate blond's attention on him once again.

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. 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. 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. 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.

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. 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.

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. 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.

"…And here I thought there was no such thing as a bigger douche," said Naruto.

"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. 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!"

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. Naruto pulled Eclipse back and swung again, cutting into the supposedly impenetrable armor and getting another loud cry for his action. Naruto growled at the thickness of the armor in frustration before he pulled Eclipse back.

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.

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. Naruto forced his way into the manifestation, dropping down behind the screaming Uchiha. 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.

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!"

"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. 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.

Like with his encounter with Luke, it was a bittersweet victory.

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.

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. 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?"

"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. 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. 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!"

"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!"

"You-You sound like my uncle. Act a bit like him, too," said Naruto with another cough of golden speckled blood. 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."

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. That'll be a bitch to fix for the next few days. 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. 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.

"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. 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. 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?"

"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.

"Not all of us can make an army."

"You're still mad about the 1000 Barrage thing, aren't you?"

"I never said that."

"You're not denying it either."

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. 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. 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. 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. 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?"

"Hopefully," said Naruto. He gave her a small smirk. "Unless you act like your cabin and get all gossipy during training."

"I'd rather learn how to fight," said Piper.

" . . . By the Gods I didn't think it was possible. Another Silena Beauregard. Damn, there goes that five drachma bet I made against Castor."

"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. "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. 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. 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.

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), 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.

"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. Jason hit the rock wall of the Valley's signature cliff with enough force to make a small crater, while Thalia ended up skidding through the dirt to a stop next to Piper, 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. 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. The daughter of Zeus groaned, getting to her feet and looking at the mutated warrior getting to his own.

"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. 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. 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.

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. 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. 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.

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. 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.

Everything had changed.

Sasuke screamed, thrashing in his bed in the hidden lair of Madara within the Land of Rain. All he could see was white and his head felt like it was on fire. He wasn't sure how that damn idiot blinded him, but once he got his eyesight back: "I AM GOING TO KILL HIM!"

"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. 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. The snake-like monstrosity of a surgeon sighed and dropped the head of his deceased master's favorite pet project. "There's absolutely nothing I can do. You may release him, Suigetsu."

"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. 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. 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! Then, oh then I'll kill him. Naruto Uzumaki, you're dead!"

"But would it do you any good?" the voice was deep, yet hissing like a snake. 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?"

"Would you like to see again?"

"Of course!"

"Do you want vengeance on the boy?"

"More than anything."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"I will kill him," said Sasuke determinedly. "This was the last straw."

"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. However, he wouldn't be much good to redeeming his clan's name without his sight. 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. As he screamed in agony, the voice chuckled darkly.

"Vengeance will be mine, Sauroctonos."

AN: It came so fast, I wonder if you'll be ready for the next two chapters while I relax on Spring Break next week. Can you guess who made the deal?

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