The story so far: Naruto finds herself in an unfamiliar world after using sheer force of will to stay alive. She breaks through a barrier, and joins a fight to protect four teens from monstrous creatures despite her limited chakra reserves.
Alias
Chiron stares out from the deck. Not for the first time, he feels older than his middle-aged appearance suggests. True, he is older than what most mortals would assume him to be. Yet, despite his robust, strong hooves and vibrant white coat, he feels tired. His brows furrow as he contemplates recent events and their implications.
A half-blood of the eldest gods.
Thalia Grace, a daughter of Zeus, has arrived at the camp, accompanied by her companions.
Shall reach sixteen against all odds.
Less than four years from now. It felt both too long and too short.
Olympus to preserve or raze.
He's glad they made it into the camp. They were safe, for now. While there are plenty of gods who'd wish otherwise, tradition will keep them at bay. Most of them won't try to smite her while she's in camp, he thinks.
The laws, covenants, and vows about the camp are too many. It was hard to comprehend how each interacted with another. He still remembers Apollo's surprise when Athena had to perform that ballet recital. Who could have known that 14 unrelated agreements resulted would imply such a thing?
He shakes those memories of a garish orange fox onesie away. He brings his thoughts helper now resting in the infirmary. The three demigods and satyr mistook her for a fellow demigod. It might not be far from the truth. She might be a legacy—a second or further generation descendant of the gods. Legacies can have special abilities, but their power diminishes with each generation. The strength of the scent that attracts monsters is relative to their power. It was why first-generation descendants of the gods attend Camp Half-Blood. They are at the greatest risk. Legacies, compared to demigods, need less of the camp's protection and training.
A sudden loud exclamation from inside the Big House interrupts Chiron's thoughts. The large, sky-blue house serves as the camp's main administrative building and infirmary. Intrigued, Chiron enters the infirmary and raises an eyebrow at the scene before him. The girl is awake and circling Argus. Her eyes dart between the security guard's hundred eyes. With deliberate steps, Chiron approaches the girl as she pokes Argus.
He smiles as her attention snaps towards him. Her bright blue eyes roam over him with child-like wonder. Has she never seen a centaur before? As such, it surprises him when her eyes dart to his quiver and bow with the sharpness of a warrior. It vanishes in an instant, and her expression returns to curiosity. Half the heroes he had trained would have missed it. Now that he was paying attention, he notices how she is no longer next to her bed. Her positioning gives her easy escape options. No. It gives her a good vector for attack too. A single step to the left and Argus will be in his way if they both attacked her.
His and her eyes lock. For an instant, his heart flutters, under her deep gaze. His soul felt bare, tested for worthiness. In response, his body straightens, as if accepting an unspoken challenge. Her face then lights up with a warm smile. His ears almost ring at her volume when she greets him.
"Yo! Hajimemashite! Boku wa ima made hanbun uma no hito to deatta koto ga nai yo. Kimi no chikara to seishinryoku wa impression-teki da ne. Mendou o mite kurete arigatou! Tokoro de, boku to issho ni ita 4-nin no gakitachi wa doko ni iru ka shitteru kana? Karera ga buji ka dou ka shiritakatta dake nan da."
"Forgive me. I'm afraid I do not understand." Not quite true. He knows enough Japanese to get an approximation of what she's saying. Unfortunately, his Japanese is too archaic for a more modern conversation.
"Heh, wakaranain da na? Daijoubu! Kage Bunshin o tsukatte korera no you na koto o motto hayaku manabu koto ga dekireba ii noni na. Demo nanika kangaetsuku sa." She seems intuitive enough to get a gist of his meaning if the playful tone of her response is anything to go by.
He gestures to himself, "My name is Chiron," then gestures to his left, "and that is Argus."
She mouths the words "Chiron" and "Argus", almost whispering. Intuitive indeed.
He nods and repeats it in confirmation. He then gestures to her. "What about you, miss? How should we refer to you?"
"Ootto, boku wa-," but then she hesitates. She mumbles, "Souda na, Kaosu ni chikatta nda. Dare ni mo iwanai tte. Yonde kure," before she settles on "Shinobu. Himura Shinobu."
His eyes narrow. He didn't understand most of what she said but catches that she is using an alias. Why would she need one?
Initiation
"New blood," says Magnus, drawing both his paternal half-siblings' attention. He guides AJ's and Rusty's gaze towards a young girl dressed in the orange camp shirt. The small blonde girl skips and hums beside Chiron as the centaur trots towards the cabins. The trio exchange mischievous grins.
They couldn't do the initiation ceremony to the last three demigods who arrived at the camp. His arm still stung at their last attempt. The sons of Ares are patient enough to wait for a better opportunity. This new girl should be a good practice run for their next attempt.
They begin to stalk the pair for a while. The children of the war god prefer direct approaches. It's too bad she's with Chiron at the moment. They don't delude themselves about their chances against the legendary Trainer of Heroes. So, the trio waits until he leaves the girl with a son of Apollo near the hearth.
Peering from a distance, they notice that the two talking over an open book.
"Are they going over foreign poetry?" AJ asks.
He rolls his eyes. "What do you care?" He hates how the scrawny ones always overthink things. "Let's grab her before Chiron comes back."
Moving from behind the marble statue, which offers poor cover due to his size, he steps into the open. Rusty and AJ follow, marching by his flank. As they approach the young girl, she stands up and turns to face them.
With a friendly wave and smile, she says, "Yaa! Genki? Kimi mo Eigo no jugyou no tame ni kita no? Soretomo gyaku kana?"
He hesitates for a moment. She is loud, but that shouldn't have gotten other people's attention. An audience would be fun, but they didn't want anyone running for Chiron.
His confidence bolsters when the boy beside the girl takes a step back. He pushes forward.
The boy tugs at the girl's arm, and the girl raises an eyebrow.
"Aa, jaa, karera wa kimi no tomodachi ja nai no ka?"
"Whatever. Go!" They charge at her. He spreads his arms wide to tackle her, but she leaps over him, slapping his back as she does. In a swift motion, she flips and twists, landing to face them again. AJ and Rusty manage to grab him in time to avoid crashing into the hearth, but he still gets minor burns. His fists clench, not because of the pain, but in frustration at the smirk on her face.
"Oshiri o keraretai nara, yorokonde keritobashite yaru yo."
Rusty darts forward, but Magnus grabs him and pulls him back. AJ and Rusty turn to him, puzzled by his actions. A hint of a smirk edges at his frown as he returns his gaze to the girl.
She's now bouncing on the balls of her feet, her fists raised in front of her. "Saa, gakidomo yo. Karui undou kurai dekiru darou na. Kono karada o tameshite miru hitsuyou ga arun da."
Magnus can't understand her, but he hears the arrogant challenge for what it is. "I didn't expect the new girl to fight back," he says, the smirk growing into a full grin. "This might be more fun than I expected." He steps forward taking the lead as the largest boy of the three.
AJ rolls his eyes, and Rusty gives him the finger, but they're also smiling when they stand aside.
"Sure, you can have this one," Rusty says. They look nonchalant, but they'll jump in if Magnus needs them.
He won't. Magnus cracks his knuckles and rolls his muscular shoulders. He then holds out his hands in front of him in an open guard.
The girl responds with a fierce shout and charges forward.
He catches her right fist with his left hand but winces as he feels her surprising power. "If you were a boy, that might have hurt," he remarks. His large hand engulfs hers in a tight grip. He grunts when her high kick hits his ribs, but his arm then traps her leg between his arm and rib. With both her hand and foot held, he twists to the right and tosses her into the air.
Instead of crashing on the ground, she continues her momentum, flipping in mid-air. His heart races with excitement as she lands on her feet. Despite her petite size and delicate features, her movements show considerable combat experience.
The girl frowns, then sighs. "Un. Tashika ni, itsumo no sutairu ni wa kinniku ga tarinai na. Maa, atarashii koto o tamesu no mo tanoshii darou."
To his surprise, her stance shifts. Her body faces to the right, with her left arm forward, and her right leg sliding backwards. She settles on a low stance with her legs apart and knees angled. Her fists loosen to open palms with her right hand level with her stomach.
A twinge of disappointment touches him, but he nods in respect. He can't understand her words, but it's obvious she's realized she can't out-muscle him.
"Saa, totte miro." She speaks and motions with her left hand.
Though he can't understand her words, her gesture is clear: "Come and get it."
Blood rushes through his veins as he accepts her challenge and charges forward. He swings his right fist, aiming for her head, but her left hand redirects it by the elbow. He stumbles against his own momentum. Before he can recover, her right hand stabs like a dagger at his armpit. Pain explodes through his body, and he doesn't register her hammer fist to his head.
The world blurs as he loses consciousness, and he doesn't recall the fall that follows. When he regains some awareness, his vision is obstructed by grass. He sees her back turned to him as she faces AJ and Rusty.
She points towards them. "Shinpai shinakute ii yo. Kimi no tomodachi wa daijoubu sa, demo asa ni wa sore o kanjiru koto ni naru darou. Demo kimi-tachi wa dou nano? Kazari-mono na no ka, sore tomo asobu junbi wa dekite iru no ka?" Her voice pierces the haze but numbness grips him.
AJ's and Rusty's playful smirks before their charge is the last thing he sees. Then unconsciousness claims him once again.
Headaches
When the Shinobu returns to the Big House early, Chiron knows something must have gone down. Her black eye and the limp on her left leg worried him. But then she scratches the back of her head with her unbroken hand. Her nervous laughter tells him that whatever happened is going to be a massive headache to deal with. He understands the instant she hides behind him after hearing other people approaching. She's at the epicentre of it all.
Sure enough, Chiron discovers seven unconscious campers from the Ares cabin sprawled around. Rumours are swirling that two of the knockouts might have been self-inflicted. If they couldn't bring the girl in for her so-called "swirly," they'd bring the swirly to her instead. The two geniuses tore out a toilet, which resulted in wild plumbing chaos, and they slipped on the wet mess. They knocked each other out with knees to the face. Demigods.
As for the other five members of Cabin 5, well, it's pretty clear that was Shinobu's handiwork. They've got fractures aplenty. One poor guy even misplaced his nose – which Shinobu, of all things, regurgitated.
Three Hephaestus cabin members ran into some monster trouble during their patrol.
A Cabin 11 member is dealing with some bizarre ailment – typical demigod luck!
The Big House's infirmary is full that night.
Leave it to the children of Ares – the ones who are conscious, at least – to call for a rematch. Of course, they don't care if they're still injured. And of course, the young hyperactive blonde bouncing off the walls agrees.
Increased attacks on the camp? That Great Prophecy looming over their heads? No, how could Chiron forget? Nothing is worse than rowdy demigod teenagers!