The Greek Kunoichi
Chapter 18: Gaia's Last Stand.
Author's Notes: Here we are at chapter 18. I'm sorry if the long fight/Quest against Gaia and her Gigantes offspring will likely feel rushed and not described very well, but my only sources of knowledge of what really happened are the multiple fan fictions I read beforehand and also the Riordan Wiki. As I said before, Naruto is not part of the Seven Heroes spoken of in the Prophecy of Seven, but it doesn't mean she can't help. Maybe I'll even show you why Naruto is considered the most powerful demigod to ever walk the face of the Earth. ;) Octavian still hasn't said his last word also. Naruto blocked him and discredited him at every turn, thus removing the possibility for him to rope his cohort and the others in his schemes. Sadly, he still has a few tricks left to use, even if they are likely bound to put the final nails on his coffin. So that's about all I have to say for now. Let's go see the stats now shall we? We now have 83 reviews, 418 followers, 421 favourites, 10 C2 Communities and 64 858 views. Thank you very much to everybody who is helping me keeps this story afloat and alive. ^_^ Now let's get this show on the road!
A few days after her delivery to Hades and her successful escape with the Hiraishin, we find Naruto back to Camp Half-Blood whipping them into shape. Knowing that they needed to be as strong as possible for when Gaia would strike, the sun kunoichi had taken over the training. Every members of every cabin was up at dawn for calisthenics and running laps around the camp. Procrastinators were made examples of at the beginning. Needless to say, even the more divas of Aphrodite's daughters had stopped complaining after that. The examples made were that terrifying. So much that nobody wanted to talk about it, much less think about it. Now we have a few hundreds of campers signing together in English to add a bit of difficulty while running and exercising. (The song is Hard Work from feat. Voyce)
Chiron was somewhat bemused and amused at the same time to see the girl from Delos take over with so much success. She was a very harsh but also fair instructor and while he would have preferred that she went easier on the younger children, he knew that with the Mother Earth currently gunning for them, they would need every little scrap of strength they could gather to at least survive. Heck, even the Gods had taken to train themselves again! On Chiron's last visit to Olympus, he had found Zeus sparring in a sword fight against Ares in one of the parks! Hera and Demeter were nearby, doing push ups and other exercises. Even Eirene and Aphrodite had willingly decided to shake the rust off so to speak! Naruto had to admit that she was somewhat curious to see how Gods really fought, her spars with her dad didn't count, he was in his shinobi body and the majority of his godly powers were outside his control unless he was around a hostile immortal foe. Hum, maybe she could sic Kurama on him just to see what would happen? She bet it would be an interesting experiment. The grumpy old fox was still itching for a rematch even after all these years. It was food for later thoughts and to likely plot in the near future. Coming back to how a real God fought (Not a fake one like Pein/Nagato…stupid overpowered eye infection…); maybe she could go challenge Mr. D to a spar? She wasn't sure if the Party God would be willing to entertain her challenge though. Maybe she should save herself some trouble and just go track down Ares-Sensei? The God of War was always in the mood for a good fight if he wasn't otherwise occupied. That would come later though, now she had her minions to tor-err comrades to train! Yes! Her comrades! Not her minions! No torture! Training! Hardcore training! She really had to stop thinking like that. She couldn't let her power get to her head! After all, there is always someone stronger than you. It could be her downfall if she started to go down that road. Once the new morning exercise routines were completed, she dismissed her comrades in arms at the same time that the conch announcing the meals was heard through the camp. Naruto was heading that way too, eager to fill her belly with the Nymphs' cooking. No offence to her mother and grandmother, she loved their cooking really, but the nymphs of Camp Half Blood were better cooks than them.
Once her sacrifices were made, Naruto loaded her plate with a bit of everything and ate with gusto. It wasn't the first time people had seen her eat and it wouldn't be the last. There wasn't a fat Demigod existing to their knowledge, their ADHD and the deep sated need to be in tip top shape to survive monsters attacks kept them away from taking too much weight. But even if they were half gods, the campers were half humans too. This was why many of the girls who had already hit puberty and were sitting at their table were currently glaring at Naruto, who seemed to be obvious to their glares. How could she eat that much and keep her figure? It was unreal! She was eating more than the Ares and Hephaestus campers, who were the bigger, taller and broader in size of all the current campers! Her strength was really deceptive too. You wouldn't believe that a young woman with her build could be that freaking strong! Chakra and Shinobi training were really the greatest equalizer short of Godhood it seemed. Mark had learned it the hard way when he tried to cop a feel of her ass the other day. He was still seeing partridges in peer trees two days after the vicious beating he received! That and he still started to cry like a little girl each time he heard a sound similar to that of moving chains. The Stoll brothers and other children of Hermes had great fun with that one!
When the meal was over and everyone left to do whatever they were scheduled to do, Naruto frowned all the while walking around aimlessly, taking in the view. She wondered how the others were fairing in their Quest and if Jason had made a move on Piper. She was pretty sure that Annabeth and Percy were at least at second base. Frank and Hazel were not that far though. The daughter of Pluto was still a bit young for things like that and probably not emotionally ready. On another subject, so far her further incursions with Sage Mode hadn't drawn Gaia's attention back to her like it did that time in Camp Jupiter. Her main theory was that the Earth primordial was effectively blocking her to not be appeased by the purified Senjutsu chakra she was releasing back into the world when she was releasing her hold on Sage Mode. Tired of being in an over analytic mode and in the mood of doing something worthwhile, she decided to go challenge Mr. D for a spar. Naruto found the Wine god easily enough; he was actually enhancing the strawberries that the camp was selling to cover their expenses. Once near the deity, she waited patiently to be acknowledged in silence. If she had learned anything about the surly God of Madness, it was that he responded better to a half blood's presence in his vicinity if said half-blood was patient, waited to be acknowledged before talking and very polite. Not that he was overly found of Heroes in the first place, but he was generally in a somewhat better mood if you didn't rush him. So waiting calmly by using the patience and meditation skills drilled into her during her Sage training, Naruto sat down on the ground in a lotus position and meditated to pass the time.
She didn't know how long she waited what with her eyes closed but she was then addressed rather rudely by the god
"So, you weren't lying after all when you said you were a Sage. I can feel the left over natural energy on you. You now have my attention, Sun brat. Now, show me."
The God ordered.
Naruto obeyed without question; after all she had wanted his attention. If she disobeyed him, he would just leave and it was counter-productive to her purpose of seeking him in the first place after all. So she stilled her body, regulated her breathing, then she started to tap into the natural forces of the world, gathering the energy and then blending it with her own thus entering Sage Mode. Once done, she opened her now toad-like eyes and fixed the purple ones of the Camp Director, who was looking at her for once without thinly veiled disdain but with clear curiosity. Naruto had very few interactions with the God of madness before, but she knew enough to not cross him. His patience was rather limited.
Dionysus or more commonly called Mr. D by the campers would be the first to tell anybody who was asking him that he hated his posting at Camp Half-Blood. While it was true at the beginning, over the years he had gradually came to somewhat care for the sanctuary's well being. While he was making every effort to be as callous and unhelpful as possible, when the campers were in dire need, he would act. While many children had tried to prove him wrong on his opinions of Heroes before, only a few had managed to sway him a little from his long held point of view. But that girl was different. She was not a Hero, well not willingly and was not even trying to be; she was a trained Soldier, her and that broody and overly calm son of Ares that she had so wrapped around her little finger that it was no longer funny. Shinobi they said they were called. Their views and morals were somewhat refreshing for the Wine God. They did not seek out glory or trophies. They weren't even trying to win favour from their fathers. They were here to do a job and to enjoy new experiences. Deciding to cut the silence, he asked the young woman
"So, what do you want Nanacho? Children these days aren't up to wait for that long if they do not want something in return."
Naruto ignored the fact that he got her name wrong. It was not like she could do anything about it. Letting her Senjutsu chakra flow away from her, thus returning to normal, she said
"I came to ask you for a spar, Sir. I'd like to experience what is like to fight against a God. My dad doesn't count since he's restricted to his shinobi body and abilities and I don't know where Ares-Sensei is, so I can't go ask him to spar against me. He isn't answering his prayer-phone either. Maybe he forgot to pay his divine phone bill and was disconnected? He really should invest in an answering machine or for the voicemail option."
The Wine dude frowned at the suffix applied to his half-brother's name and asked
"Sensei? What does that word mean?"
Naruto was prompt to answer
"It could means either "teacher or master", Sir. In recompense for fostering his newly orphaned Delos dwelling son, who is Sasuke and also to have guided him away from the path of the Avenger after the massacre of his Clan; Lord Ares granted a boon to my mother after requesting a meeting with her. She then asked him for an impartial and competent teacher to teach me how to fight with pole weapons. Ares-Sensei taught me for years in my demigod dreams. He was a very harsh taskmaster, but still impartial as asked."
Mr. D hummed at that. So that girl wanted to spar with a God who was not somehow reduced huh? He wasn't an idiot; he could guess that she wanted to see by herself the differences between their levels. He had to admit that the offer was rather tempting. It would relieve him of his sheer boredom for a while and it would help him stay in shape for when Gaia would inevitably strike. He could also feel his Roman persona, Bacchus, stir in interest, but not enough to take over. That girl before them had successfully negotiated a cease fire followed by a truce and also a temporary alliance between the Romans and the Greeks. The bad blood between them wasn't all gone, but she had cleared enough of it to open discussions. Athena must be beyond herself since she was the most anti-Roman of them all. Zeus must likely have restrained her somehow or she would have been here in a flash to smite Apollo's favourite child for being a traitor, damn the consequences. Said daughter of his sunny half brother had even managed to gain the respect of Terminus, which was no small feat! She had persevered even with all the odds and obstacles put against her. He had to give credit where credit was due. It was a job well done.
Thus with a false annoyed tone of voice and an very exaggerated sigh, he answered
"Fine, we will spar. But since I am a God and can only fight demigods after being challenged or attacked first, you will have to challenge me officially. It's quite annoying, I know, but that's the Ancient Laws for you."
He finished with a bored shrug.
Naruto answered the God of Madness with a truly sunny smile, proving to the world that she really was a daughter of Apollo and then said with a voice full of confidence in herself
"Mr. D, I, Special Jonin Naruto Uzumaki of the Village Hidden in the Leaves, daughter of Apollo, officially challenge you to a spar!"
The God's answer to the official challenge was a simple snap of his fingers and both were now transported instantly into the Arena.
The God's attire had somewhat changed, since he was now wearing a celestial bronze armour on top of his leopard-spot Hawaiian shirt. He had also changed his purple running shoes into old style Greek sandals. With another snap of his fingers, he was now armed with a pine cone-topped thyrsus rod wreathed in ivy. That weapon made Naruto instantly put her guard on. Rooting through her kunai pouch and man was she glad to have picked the habit of always having her weapons with or near her no matter the situation, she took two of her specially made ones, forged in the savant alloy of chakra conducting steel and celestial bronze; Perfect for her job in and out of Delos. With them she could fight mortals, immortal beings and monsters alike. Now properly armed, her sky blue eyes became hard as ice and feral, showing how serious she took things. Carefully channelling more of her chakra all over her body to be sure to be ready for anything be it offence or defence, she waited for the god to start things up. Naruto had grown a lot since her days as a Genin and not only in a physical sense. She was no longer the impatient and impulsive brat whose answer to every threat was to blast it away with more power than sense. She had matured and honed her skills to a razor sharp edge. She was no longer only an unrefined powerhouse; she was now an experimented and seasoned soldier.
She didn't have to wait much longer, since Mr. D decided it was time to start things up by sending a bunch of ivy vines after her. Said vines were quickly hacked to pieces thanks to her kunais. The God didn't do more than raise an eyebrow at the speed his adversary used to get rid of the vines. He was about to try something else when he saw her move at speeds almost divine! Pleasantly surprised, he raised his Thyrsus to block the incoming kick and to send her away. She was fast! For a mortal that is. The dance stayed the same for a while, Naruto would be attacking with her feet, fists and kunais at random intervals and locations after a sudden burst of speed, only to be blocked and deflected by her foe that tended to stay stationary. After a good shot that managed to hit her under the chin and made her fly back a few metres away, the God started to get suspicious. Even the most well trained demigod would be panting after so many speed bursts and violent hits like that. But his current adversary was not even slightly winded. In fact, she looked like she was having the time of her life!
Mr. D didn't have time to ponder much longer on the mysteries surrounding his challenger, since he was then taken off guard. Her fox like grin and her sharpened canines threw him for a loop. Why was she grinning like that? He couldn't feel any madness on her and he hadn't started to play with her head either. Then she said something under her breath, something about shifting gears, before she was engulfed into sunlight! If he was not a God, he would have been entirely dazzled! Then in the blink of an eye, she was on him! Faster than anything he had even seen a mortal move before, she started to attack him with many quite speedy combos of well placed punches and kicks with also quite a few thrust of her strange knives. Yikes! Another stab happy woman! Just what he needed!
Just as he was taking up a golf stance to bat her away with his trusty thyrsus, the speedy lass managed to pass through his guard with a literal breath-taking Sunlight Speed and chakra enhanced kick in the centre of his chest! With the speed and a hefty dose of chakra into the move adding exponentially to the power behind the blow, Dionysus was thrown away backwards like a rag-doll as per the laws of physics, until he decided to stop himself in mid air. If he hadn't been a god, that kick would have shattered his ribs into tiny bits! The deity only had time to stare incomprehensively at the girl who had challenged him to this spar with also surprise clearly written on his face that something else required his immediate attention. The rather big ball of golden fire that she somehow threw at him! Mr. D let the ball of foreign and clearly supernatural fire approach with open curiosity on his face but when it was near him, he forcefully changed it into a few cans of Diet Mountain Dew. Said cans dropped to the ground with a few dull thuds.
"What in Tartarus was that?! It wasn't Greek fire! That I am very sure!"
He demanded.
What the God wasn't about to say out loud, was the fact that the supernatural golden fire had resisted his efforts to transform it. Oh, he had managed easily enough in the end, but not as easily as usual and that was very suspicious in his mind. Something unknown was resistant to his godly energy!
Naruto answered him in a sing-song voice with a pleased smile on her pouty lips
"Fox Fire! A magical fire usually wielded by Kitsunes, chaotic tricksters fox spirits from Asia."
The party God was intrigued enough to ask a few more questions on this subject.
"How come a Greek demigod could possess some powers very similar to an Asian creature's ability? Does Delos have so much Asiatic influences? "
Naruto pondered if she should answer the questions. The first was her secret to tell, but the second could potentially uncover Uzu No Kuni. Cursing in her head her father's blood that was making her a bad liar, she decided to go with the official approach when asked for village secrets.
"It's somewhat complicated to explain. The short story is that I share my soul with the most powerful Fox Spirit to ever walk the face of the Earth since a few hours after my birth. It has given me some nifty extra abilities, such as the Fox Fire. For your other question, I'm afraid that I can't discuss it with you. You don't have the clearance for it, sorry. Now, enough talking, it's time for more fighting!"
She then started to make hand seals so fast that her hands were blurs to the naked eye! Once on her last seal, Bird, she took a big breath, and then expelled multiple air bullets at insane speeds.
"Wind Style: Air Bullets!"
Mr. D was getting tired of being surprised and baffled by a mortal's capacities. Needing to establish dominance in the spar, he started dodging every air bullets shot at him and deflecting those that came too close for comfort. Once the technique was over, he adjusted his body to have more power to his disposal, since the girl was strong and fast enough to take it. With a burst of speed, he was in her guard and started using the moves of the Pankration to beat her to submission. But while the God had the clear advantage of strength, able to score a good few hits at the beginning, the demigod was very quick and agile. She usually dodged the grabbing moves at the last second and at one time she perched herself on one of his arms upside down! Annoyed, he threw her up in the air, thinking that she would be a sitting duck, but he was proved wrong again! She literally disappeared in a yellow flash of light, only to instantly reappear in his guard, scoring a hit across his bearded left cheek with a kunai, shaving him a little and drawing first blood! That one was stinging for his ego!
Naruto back flipped away from a hit of his thyrsus, coming to a stop a few paces away from her foe. With a nonchalant move, she spat a glob of blood on the ground, not caring that she was sporting deep purple bruises on her face and on a few places on her body, a split lip and a chipped tooth. Deciding to mix things up, she made her favourite hand sign and announced after channelling a big dose of her chakra into it
"Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" ("Mass Shadow Clone technique!")
Mr. D was once again taken off guard by the appearance of hundreds of duplicates of his adversary in puffs of white smoke, but took back his aplomb when Naruto ordered them with a pointed finger in his direction
"Let's go gals! Dog pile on the God!"
The clones were quick to cheer loudly and to obey, rushing at a lesser speed than the original toward the Party God, who was getting really fed up of being forced in a reaction fight! But she was not reckless enough to let him get really started, in case he turned into a juggernaut. At the second she was sensing that she was losing the advantage, Naruto retreated. The God of Madness had at least been fixed as to why the girl was able to convert sunlight as energy for a supernatural speed. Bacchus had asked Roman Mode Apollo about it, only to be told that yes, a Roman God had bestowed a never seen before gift on his Greek side's only legitimate daughter for shit and giggles really, after a long night of drinking and debauchery with Mars and Mercury when the girl was four, with the sole intention to really mess with his Greek Mode's head. While Apollo was locked physically in Minato's body and thus couldn't go Roman Mode on his own free will unless he was attacked by an Immortal enemy of Rome, the Roman persona was still available by godly telepathy, but otherwise a non entity for the moment.
Mr. D had made an interesting discovery by swatting the clones away. The duplicates of his adversary were rather easy to dispel. One or two good hits and they disappeared in the puff of smoke that they appeared in. So far he had managed to avoid the worse of the dog pile, but he had to get rid of them quickly since the more time he took, the more time the Sun brat had to plot her next moves against him. So far, she was fighting him rather prudently and he hadn't seen her principal weapon in action yet. Chiron had told him that she had shape shifting powers, but he was rather skeptic about that. The immortal centaur was not in habit of lying, but he could be mistaken. Shape shifting was not a power the Gods gave their children, with the exception of minor changes like eye and hair color for Aphrodite's children. And his foe had not one drop of Love blood in her. She was a true daughter of the Sun and granddaughter of the Sea. Then when he got rid of the last clone, it was to find him face to face with something unnameable.
She had somehow managed to get her hands on a very large ornamented bow, almost as tall and big as herself. She had a few clones all around the weapon keeping it steady, but the most surprising thing so far, was to see a hybrid weapon that looked like a trident used as a makeshift arrow! And to make things even more fantastical, the trident thingy (He was not an expert on weapons even if in his long life he had seen more than his fair share. That was more Ares' and Athena's shtick really) was coated in a green light that somehow reminded him of wind; wait, hadn't she said once that she could coat her weapons with wind energy (chakra) to make them sharper? And the drill shape at the base was serving as the arrow's head! He had only time to bring about a barrier of Oaks trees to shield him since the girl had used her enhanced strength to draw back the string and shoot her improvised arrow at him!
Even then, his barrier partially failed, since he had been right on his assumption, she had enhanced her weapon with her inner energy! The drill tip of Nejibana had stopped only a few inches from his nose! Now Dionysus was starting to get very annoyed. That girl was way too resourceful for his tastes and she was always staying at distance so he couldn't knock her out with a good hit of his thyrsus. Then when the smoke and the trees debris were gone after he willed them away, he could no longer see her! That annoyingly resourceful girl had disappeared! Then a strange sound was heard from above and when the God looked up, he saw that damnable girl with her fox like grin, thrusting toward him her left arm, in which palm was a giant orb of energy! Mr. D didn't lost any more time; he quickly charged his left fist full of his divine energy and then punched the gigantic bluish orb just as it was about to hit him while the girl, Naruto, called out loud the name of her technique
"Cho Oodama Rasengan!" ("Ultra-Big Ball Rasengan!")
The godly punch and the gigantic chakra technique collided and for an instant, nothing seemingly happened. Then a very loud explosion happened and the power behind the blow was enough to send both combatants on each side of the arena, making them collide with the stone walls. It was only the fact that Dionysus was a God and Naruto was a chakra wielding demigod or both would have been killed if not by the strength of the explosion, by the collision at lethal speed against such a hard surface. Naruto groaned out loud, her head and back were killing her. She tried to get up, but she was still very disoriented and ended up back on her bum, waiting for her healing factor to kick in.
"Ugh, do you know which Bijuu decided to play ball with me? I bet it was Shukaku, that stupid jerk of a sand rat..."
She was answered by a snickering Kurama in her head
"It wasn't one of my siblings that put you in this state, silly girl. You decided to challenge a God and tried to finish the fight with a close range technique while he was about to punch away said technique. Two thumbs up for the explosion though."
Naruto's answer was only another loud groan.
On the God's side, he was not faring that well either. He was not as physically hurt as the girl, but his ego had taken a very big beating. Both were holding back their strength and made sure to never use a single deadly move, since it was supposed to only be a spar after all. But the entire time he had been forced into a reaction fight. He hadn't managed even one time to toy with her like he usually did to most of his foes since his ascension to godhood. It was, frankly, very upsetting. He had thousands of years of accumulated experience, but against an adversary as quick and resourceful as Naruto, it had literally meant nothing. Coming to a decision, he decided right then and there that he would stop lazing around and put himself back in shape so that the next time a promising brat challenged him to a spar, he would be able to show them how it was done. He actually felt ashamed of himself, somewhat! Managing to push himself on his feet, Mr. D then saw something that took his breath away.
All the wounds on the daughter of Apollo were currently steaming and closing up at an alarming rate! Yes, the children of the Sun Rider were always fast healers, but now that was just ridiculous! Then he remembered a half heard conversation about the girl's lineage. The clan her mother hailed from was renowned for their incredibly potent life force, granting them a very long lifespan and also allowing them to recover from injuries and exhaustion in a short lapse of time. Add to that the Fox Spirit sharing her soul who was always channelling his own power into his host and her inborn perks as a child of Apollo and you got what he just saw. Mr. D shook his head. His sunny brother just had to reproduce with a woman with innate gifts that would complement his own. Then after a quick
"Thanks for the exercise."
Towards his still recovering sparring partner, he left. He had much introspection to go through. His boredom had been cured though. Bonus!
Back in the Old Lands with the Seven, things were getting harder. They had rescued Nico Di Angelo, son of Hades, from his imprisonment at the request of his Roman sister Hazel and he had joined them on their Quest. Somehow, Reyna had also made it to Rome a bit after them. Apparently, Terminus had sent her to take the Athena Parthenos back to Camp Half Blood to heal the rift between both personas of the Gods. But Arachne just had to make things difficult. You know, monsters and their grudges? While the statue was safely loaded into the Argo II, the mother of all spiders who was guarding the statue, managed to pull Annabeth and Percy into Tartarus. Their trials would be great, their bond strained to an almost breaking point. Even if Naruto's preparations beforehand had made Percy's new journey easier, he had hardened much more since he had been forced to live on the streets for a while, thus showing him the uglier side of humanity hidden in cracks or sometimes not even all that well hidden.
There were many, many trials down in Tartarus, mainly the rivers themselves. There were also many untold horrors down there. Many times both Percy and Annabeth had to cut their losses and run, since many foes down there was way too strong for them. It was in times like that that Annabeth regretted having left Naruto's Hiraishin Kunai in her room on the Argo II. She had the knack to doing the impossible and who knows? Maybe her space/time technique could have gotten them out? Obviously, been away from the camp, she hadn't heard how Naruto's visit to the Underworld had went. After many trials and even more brushes with death and Tartarus' dwelling deities, Percy and Annabeth found two unlikely allies, the Giant Damasen, the Anti-Ares and Iapetus the Titan Lord of the West, now called Bob after his dip into the River Lethe. They had managed to pass through the terrifying Mansion of Night after tricking Nyx's children into bickering between them for a reason or another. They were making good time towards the Doors of Death, but stopped at Hermes' Shrine to rest. It was there that the Demigods learned that the burnt offerings in the brazier in the mess hall of Camp Half-Blood were making their way to the Gods' altars, since many offerings burnt for Hermes were in his shrine and both demigods managed to fill their stomachs with them. They were making good time towards the Doors' location even if Annabeth and her smarts had given them trouble for once, like accidentally insulting Akhlys, the goddess of Misery in saying that she was a minor deity but also ignoring that she was old even before the Titans emerged. They managed to get the Death Mist they came from, but were betrayed and forced in a running fight.
They were just about to manage to escape through the Doors of Death when Tartarus, the protogenoi, awoke. His presence was unreal and his power unmatched, even for a Gigante and a Titan. And in the end, there was nothing they could really do against such a being. Both Iapetus and Damasen sacrificed themselves to give the demigods time to escape through the Doors. Annabeth slashed away the chains holding down the Doors on Tartarus' side, while Hazel did the deed on the mortal side. From there, everything went downhill. Gaia managed to awaken full when the blood of both Percy and Annabeth were shed. She had wanted to drain them of all their blood, but she was pragmatic enough to make due. All her Gigantes children were also awake, ready to bring down the Gods. Speaking of the gods, while they weren't quite as useless as they could have been, those with a Greek and Roman persona couldn't stay settled long enough to fight adequately their foes, that is until Reyna managed with the help of Percy's Pegasus steed Blackjack and five others Pegasi, Coach Hedge and Nico Di Angelo's help to put the Athena Parthenos on Half-blood hill, curing instantly the whole Pantheon of their multiple personality disorder.
On Octavian's side of things, been sidelined by that detestable daughter of his ancestor from his own people; made him even more reckless and even less pleasant company than before. During the campaign' preparations for a force of Roman legionnaires to go East to give a hand to the Greeks, he managed to slip away from the Camp and with stolen funds that he had acquired for his purposes, he managed to track down and hire many former legionnaires evicted in disgrace, several more reasonable monsters and also many unsavoury mortal mercenaries aware of the Supernatural world. What he got in total was a ragtag cohort of about three hundred "men", mostly equipped with mortal weaponry, with a few here and here with Celestial Bronze and/or Imperial Gold weapons. Of course, such a "glorious" Cohort needed a much more "glorious" leader than a simple Augur and Centurion, which is why Octavian then self appointed himself as Pontifex Maximus on the spot. Once their preparations were done, they conscripted (read acquired on the black market) a few cargo planes big enough for everyone and with the officials either bribed or pacified by the Mist, they were on their way to New-York, to exterminate the Greeks demigods to the last man standing. Then they would get rid of Gaia and all the traitors to their Just Cause. Proving that his lust for power had gone to his head and overwhelmed what little was left of his self preservation in the first place; he addressed his troops sometime during the trip with a picture of Naruto in his hands, showing it to them
"Whoever brings me her head will be rewarded with three thousands Denarius and my most sincere gratitude! Do not even attempt to subdue her, she possess many strange and sacrilegious abilities. Be careful when you approach her, she is a trained and experimented soldier. Do not attempt to molest or sexually assault her,
He added after many wolf whistles, cat calls and many very lewd comments
It wouldn't surprise me if she had tried tactics against those acts. Your lives matter more to me than the state of her virtue, if she's a virgin at all. Her name is Naruto Uzumaki and she is a daughter of Apollo. I want her dead, even more than the rest of those degenerate barbarians Greeks! I'll even offer a bonus of five hundreds Denarius if her death is really painful! Do not underestimate her, for it would be the very last thing you'll ever do."
While Octavian thought he had signed that damnable girl who stonewalled and countered him at every turns' death warrant, in fact he had only insured his own demise, one way or another. Naruto was not the type of soldier to show mercy on a battlefield. She had been burned before. Now she would not make the same mistake twice. Octavian was only still alive because her mission's parameters weren't permitting her to make too much waves in Camp Jupiter. Otherwise she would have gotten rid of him already with no remorse what so ever.
Eventually after a certain time, every major player managed to make their way to Half-Blood Hill in one way or another. The crew members of the Argo II were sent by Zeus after the King of the gods and Jason managed as a team to strike down permanently Porphyrion, the king of the Gigantes. Camp Half-Blood was ready to battle in three minutes when Chiron gave the order once the sentinels raise the alarm. They were guarding their borders ferociously. Camp Half-Blood was not just a summer camp, for many it was the only place they felt at home and now each and every one of them were willing to put their lives on the line to protect it! The enemy would not get an easy battle!
Reyna had arrived with the goal to put the Athena Parthenos on Half Blood Hill only an hour before everything went downhill and was now taking a much needed breather with Nico and Coach Hedge, all exhausted from their mad dash from Greece to New York, dodging the Gigante Orion and Lycaon, the King of Wolves. As such, they were those with the better seats to see a deadly serious Naruto and Sasuke running ahead with chakra enhanced speed, since a sort of golem had erupted from the ground with catastrophic sounds. Said golem was in fact an awakened Gaia, a twenty foot tall (About six metres high for those who can't get their heads around the Imperial system) figure of a woman – her dress was woven from blades of grass; her skin was as white as quartz, her hair brown and tangled like tree roots. Her eyes were a solid green colour, like if all nature had been condensed into a few spoonfuls of organic matter. The fact that the Athena Parthenos had in fact healed the divide between the gods' persona was a good thing. The statue was doing its job, since even if it couldn't repeal Gaia, it was clearly hindering her.
Both Demigods from Delos, once they had covered enough distance, took a hard bite on their thumbs until they both drew blood, then performed the required hand signs, moulded the necessary chakra before slapping their right palm on the ground with a dual cry of
"KUCHIYOSE NO JUTSU!" ("Summoning technique!")
And in two gigantic puffs of smokes, both shinobis were on the head of a giant toad and of a giant snake respectively. Gamakichi's skin was a dark red colour with some black under his webbed hands, on his tights, legs and webbed feet, some dark blue around his eyes, eyebrows ridges and lips. He was wearing a dark blue jacket to his size and a blue orb on a rope on his neck; he was sporting a smoking cigarette around his lips and around his waist was a white sash that was used like a belt for his gigantic tanto. He was also big enough that he was towering above everything, be they trees, primordial goddess and man-made things included. Gamakichi could leap across enormous distances in a relatively short period of time; his size didn't hinder his speed and agility, or his intelligence, in the slightest.
Aoda was a large blue snake with light green eyes, and was easily comparable in size to the largest of summons. He towered above trees, buildings, and rock formations, like his toad counterpart. Like many snakes, Aoda possessed large infrared-sensitive receptors on his snout.
Gamakichi was the first to talk after rolling his golden eyes to look upon the human on his head
"Hey, big sis! What gives? I hope you sake that you called me to fight something strong! I was playing poker with Gamatatsu and I was literally fleecing him!"
Naruto rolled her eyes in exasperation and answered him with a deadpan voice
"'Kichi, little bro, I summoned you to help me fight the divine personification of the Earth itself. Believe me, it's a fight worth calling you for! I need all the strength I can muster for a fight like that!"
On his side, Sasuke was having a much more easy time. Aoda was very mild mannered and respectful to its summoner, since he was talking to him with the suffixes used for people in high stations
"What is your will, Sasuke-Sama?"
Together, both shinobis ordered their personal summons
"Attack Gaia!"
It was to the scene of the giant toad and snake attacking the Earth Mother that Octavian and his troops along with their war machines climbed down the hill. Of course, such a surreal scenario made them stop and stare with a total incomprehension. Two giant animals who spoke a foreign language (Japanese and a mix of other Asian languages) engaging in battle a Primordial being with a demigod on top of their heads. That was becoming really weird. And they were living in a world were Gods and monsters were real.
Every demigod who was not from Delos had two words in head by seeing the two gigantic animals give Gaia a run for her money.
Gods. Damn.
From there, it was pure chaos. The Greeks demigods sent a part of their force to deal with the monsters who decided to ditch Octavian's plan of action to go feast on the children of the gods nearby, the mortal mercenaries were getting scared shitless by what was happening and Hecate's manipulation of the Mist around their minds wasn't helping things either. (She was still under probation for her actions in the recent Titanomachy, so she couldn't afford to slack off) Naruto had seeded the battlefield with her Shadow Clones to help her comrades fight, but she couldn't pull her attention from Gaia for too long, even if Aoda and Gamakichi were bigger, taller and meaner looking that the form she had actually took, they hadn't managed to bypass her bloody annoying regeneration factor yet. It was a rather frustrating stalemate since both summonses were too fast and agile to get caught by Gaia's retaliations. Senjutsu enhanced attacks weren't working correctly as they should, the snake's venom, even as potent as it was seeing Aoda's size, wasn't doing his job all that well either.
Then a gigantic western style bronze dragon shot out of the wreck that the ship had become after its crash landing. Sasuke' enhanced eyesight saw Leo piloting and from reading his lips, he was ordering Festus to grab Gaia into his claws and to make her leave the ground. Using his near genius mind, Sasuke managed to piece together Leo's plan and shout to Naruto
"Naruto, help me launch her into the air! If she loose contact with the ground, she shouldn't be able to regenerate any longer!"
The sun kunoichi nodded and shared the plan with Gamakichi.
Said giant toad was feeling exhilarated! Even if he was starting to tire somewhat, he was having the fight of his life and he absolutely loved every second of it! That Dirt lady was speaking gibberish at him, but he could slash at her so many times with his tanto and she could take it! He was the eldest son of the current Toad chief Gamabunta, slated to take his place as the new chief of the Toad tribe of Mount Myoboku in a short few years. So he was very powerful, right up there with Gamahiro and Gamaken, both who where only slightly less powerful than his father. Not many of his kin could give him a good challenge anymore. So fighting a Primordial Goddess was exhilarating and very liberating, since he could finally cut loose! Then his big sister shared the plan on how to defeat their foe. Now how to get her in the air? He could jump pretty high, but the height he could attain would dramatically decrease with something as heavy and big as the Dirt lady in his grasp.
Said dilemma was resolved a moment later when Naruto went straight to Kurama mode in a flash of golden light, which was a bit surprising, given her tendency to primarily use her Tailed Beast's given powers for physical transformations rather than the chakra cloaks. With an extension of her will, a likeness of Kurama's head in golden flame like chakra formed with her still inside the maw. Bringing her arms back had the effect of the construct opening its jaws and for a ratio of eight to two of positive black chakra and negative white chakra to gather from the atmosphere to form a purple sphere of tremendously powerful energy. The heaviness of the power was felt all over the battlefield and among all the people present, some clearly remembered what it was. Seeing that the technique was almost completed, there were panicked shouts of running for cover all over the place. Just as Naruto extended her arms, the sphere was sucked into the construct's jaws, and in front of everyone watching, Naruto and Kurama roared together
"BIJUUDAMA!" ("Tailed Beast Ball!")
Then the energy was fired in a beam like manner! A moment later, the destructive energy had hit the Primordial Goddess right under the chin, sending her flying! Just as Gaia was about to send roots from her feet to regain her footing, Aoda the large blue snake was there in a flash, sending her higher into the air with a mighty swing of his tail! Then Festus took over after a command from Leo, diving with a ferocious roar and picking the deity in its talons, keeping her farther and farther away from the ground with judicious help of Jason, who was directing powerful winds under the wings of Festus with his powers to help it gain some much needed altitude! Also the farther she was from the earth, the less powerful she became! After that, everything happened too fast. Somehow Piper had coordinated some kind of plan with Leo and managed to talk Gaia into taking a human form and to sleep with her charmspeak. She was successful but it would not hold long. It was then that things took a grimier road. Leo ordered Festus to fly higher and higher and he was somehow summoning all the fire he could control from his body and some more! Then, a flaming onager projectile was fired on Ocatavian's order from his side of the debacle in direction of Gaia. The problem in that was that the self appointed Pontifex Maximus's cape had somehow managed to get caught in it, thus sending him to his screaming, flaming, death. Unseen, away from the main battle, was two clones of Naruto who shared between them a dark smirk that would make their foxy partner proud and a subtle high five before dispelling. Still on top of Gamakichi's head, Naruto nodded to herself. It was done. After all, she had warned him more than once what would be the consequences should he cross her again. He didn't heed her advice and warnings and he also decided to come here to make war. Well, good riddance to bad rubbish.
Her thoughts were put to a screeching halt when she realised where the shot from the onager was headed, but it was too late for her to do anything about it, even with all her vaunted speed. It would take too much time to flush all of Kurama's chakra from her system to then shift gears into Sunlight Speed. Then Leo did the kamikaze, bringing Gaia down or rather up, with him! Dismissing Gamakichi after thanking him, she used her chakra cloak's speed to dash in Leo's direction. She had eyes only for him at the moment. Naruto was not much of a healer outside of having basic field training for the first aid and a basic healing jutsu in her arsenal, but anything she could do to help would be welcomed. She managed to make it in time to recover his falling body before it fell to the ground. The fact that the boy did not make a crack at landing face first into her bosom was somehow disturbing. The fact that she could no longer sense Gaia's presence was something else too. Feeling Leo's pulse decrease more and more and also seeing his charred body, the Sun kunoichi decided to try the all out. She was just about to give the elf like boy a big infusion of purified chakra, when the chakra cloak cut off without warning. Incensed, Naruto asked her partner
"Hey! Kurama! What gives? I need the cloak if I am to heal him! You know that I'm rubbish as a healer otherwise! Come on, It's not the time to be miserly over your chakra right now!"
She was answered by a snort and a growling voice
"Foolish whelp! Do you not remember your early lessons? Beings without chakra don't react well at all to it! You could have perhaps healed a legacy or a regular mortal, but on a demigod born outside of the Elemental Nations, the ichors that run in their veins from their divine parent remove any traces of even a basic chakra network! Basically, you would have killed him even faster!"
She was about to start praying for her dad's help, and was it weird? She had never did a song/prayer as a plea for her father to heal someone or something, when a mildly damaged Festus whirred and clicked sadly, before somehow managing to inject some kind of medicine into the son of Hephaestus' blood stream! Miraculously, the young man started to heal at an accelerated rate, the damage caused by the explosion erasing itself! His pulse was strengthening, he was breathing easier also. All the signs that he was out of the woods was there. Naruto didn't know what to do. She couldn't stay and protect the younger man since she was needed on the battlefield to clear the monsters that Octavian foolishly brought with him and Shadow Clones were no good for a situation as delicate as that one. They will likely get bored and move away to do something interesting. Stupid insubordinate copies…She was about to run to the infirmary when the bronze dragon clicked and whirred. Naruto didn't understand what Festus said, but she understood the feelings he was pushing through the empathy link he opened with her. He would take care of Leo and would bring him somewhere safe.
Naruto hesitated only a minute and seeing her comrades having a hard time to hold the line under the pressure of the attackers' wave, she decided to thrust the automaton. Quickly she put the son of the forge God on the Dragon's back and with a quick seal tag, she stuck him there until the bronze Dragon's next landing. With her blessing, Festus took off with a recovering Leo to parts unknown. Free of her concern and aware that the others would have been there if they could but with their hands full in fighting off monster after monster, she resolved to explain everything later. For now, she had monsters to slew. Summoning Nejibana into her hands, she launched herself into the fray, leaving behind her a trail of golden light.
It was a long and harrowing fight for everyone, but after four hours, the last monster was defeated, falling into golden dust. Even Naruto, with her immense stamina, was exhausted and sore all over. She was resting, sitting against Thalia's pine, caressing with one hand the hair of Sasuke, who was drowsing on her thighs and the other the muzzle of Peleus, the dragon who was guarding the Golden Fleece. The last time she had felt that exhausted was when she went Tailed Beast Mode to bring the Argo II and their passengers to Whirlpool Country. Now, she just wanted to relax. The world was saved, Gaia was defeated and she had embarrassed Percy and Annabeth by asking them out loud if Annabeth was about to reward her boyfriend with a blowjob. Her job was done, for now. She closed her eyes and let herself fall into Morpheus' realm.
Omake: Jiraiya got his ass handed to him and saved by a girl.
The gallant Jiraiya had seen better days. After a successful infiltration of Amegakure no Sato or the Hidden Rain Village in English, the spymaster managed to capture some shinobis with the intention to obtain some much needed Intel on the "God" who was the lord and master of the ninja village. While he did get some information, it was not as much as he wanted. In the end, he was confronted by his ex student Konan, a pretty blue haired Kunoichi who used paper techniques. While the Toad Sage managed to overpower her, when he was confronted with the Six Paths of Pein, it was another story all together.
While he managed to incapacitate three of the six paths, he was caught off guard by one path and got one arm severed at the elbow. Just as he was about to be finished off, a yellow flash of light appeared, surprising the paths and Jiraiya. Naruto had used her father's prized technique, Hiraishin, to come at the rescue of the Pervy Sage. While one path started a righteous spiel, the Jinchūriki ignored it, took Jiraiya's remaining arm in a fireman carry, ignoring his protests and just as all the paths were converging on her, she gave them her trademarked fox like grin, the vulgar two fingers salute, before teleporting with her carry under the nose of the supposed God of Amegakure.
Ha! Take that you asshole! Not so fast for a God huh?