Disclaimer: I do NOT own Naruto nor Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. I am just a lowly writer with too much time in my hands.

Warning: This is a sequel story. Read the following first before you read this story.

Child of the Moon: The Lightning Thief
Child of the Moon: The Sea of Monsters
Child of the Moon: The Titan's Curse

Chapter 8

It was a workshop. Measuring instruments littered the work table. A forge burned red hot in the corner. A tall boy stoked the bellows. A weird funnel device attached to the forge's chimney trapped the smoke and heat, channeling it through a pipe next to a large bronze manhole cover.

The time of day looked to be in the morning. The sky outside was blue, not that the two prisoners could see from the dungeon they were working on. The only indication to the two workers was a window high up in the wall. Only a shinobi who knows his stuff could reach it, but it was obvious that none of the two were shinobi.

The other worker was a frail old man. He was terribly thin, and his hands were raw and red from working. His long white mane covered his eyes as he worked, and his tunic was smudged with grease.

What was he working on, you ask?

I can only describe it as beautiful.

It was a long metal patchwork, similar to that of chain mail. When he held his masterpiece up, he revealed it to be metal wings with thousands of interlocking bronze feathers. He stretched the wings to their full wingspan; it reached twenty feet! The metal feather gleamed in the little sunlight they got, causing it to shimmer about thirty shades of gold.

Now, I know what you're thinking. It's made of freaking metal! How the hell is this thing going to fly?

My answer to that is: You don't know this inventor. If he made it, there's no way in Hades's Undergarments is this thing going to fail.

"Father, you're a genius!" The boy said as he looked up at the old man's handiwork.

A smile crept up to the old man's lips. "Tell me something I don't know, Icarus. Now hurry up, we need at least an hour to attach them.

The now-named Icarus shook his head. "No, father. You made them. You should get the honor of wearing them first."

AN HOUR LATER

Both men sat wearing their leather harnesses. They almost looked like climbing gears, but trust me, they're not going climbing. The metal wings were attached to their back. The old man looked like a majestic golden birdman.

"The wax should hold on for several hours," The old man said as he attached the same set of wings to his son. "But, we must be careful. If we fly to the sun would melt the wax. If we fly too low, the sea will wet the wax."

"Yes, father. We've been through that a million times now!" Icarus waved his father off. "These are your inventions. There's no way that they would fail!"

"One cannot be too careful, my son," The old man said, but you can see his eyes shining. He loved this boy more than anything.

Things were going smoothly, when–

BOOM!

A loud sound thundered through the dungeon as a battering ram slammed into the wooden door.

The sound startled the old man, causing him to spill some wax on the young boy's shoulder. His son winced, but he did not cry out.

"What's happening?" He instead panicked. "They're not due fo–"

BOOM!

The battering ram once again slammed on the doors, stopping the boy from his words; they were a moot point now.

The old man worked on the wings furiously, or well, as furiously as an old man could work. He worked through the booming sounds of the battering ram. And, just as the doors splintered, he finished with the right-wing.

"Surprised to see me, Daedalus?" A voice came from inside the plume of dust and smoke that the rubble of the door kicked up. "I'd like to say I'm sorry for crashing into your party, but I'm not."

The owner of the voice walked through the smoke. It was King Minos, with a cruel smile plastered on his face.

"We're leaving, Minos," Daedalus told him with courage, despite the armed guards beside the King.

The cruel king just chuckled. "You know, I was curious how far you could take your little project before I crushed your hopes and dreams. I must say, I'm impressed, despite how you look like metal chickens right now. I should just pluck your wings off and make a soup."

"Hehe, Chicken Soup," One of the guards chuckled, finding his King's joke funny.

"SHUT UP!" He yelled at the guard. He turned to the inventor. "YOU HAVE MADE ME A LAUGHINGSTOCK OF THE WHOLE MEDITERRANIAN. YOU LET MY DAUGHTER ESCAPE. YOU DROVE MY WIFE INTO MADNESS! AND, YOU KILLED MY MONSTER!"

In a bout of anger, Icarus grabbed the wax gun and shot it at the King. On instinct, the guards stepped forwards to shield their King, only to get sprayed in the face with hot wax.

The guards writhed in pain. The two men used the opportunity to pry open the manhole cover.

The guards recovered, but Daedalus threw a vial of green liquid at them. The oil around them lit ablaze as the fire spread through the whole workshop.

"What are you waiting for, you idiots?! GET THEM!" Minos all but snarled at his guards who were scared of a little fire.

Little did they know, the two prisoners had already escaped and were flying safely over the ocean.

AIRSPACE, A GOOD DISTANCE AWAY FROM CRETE

"Father! We're free!" Icarus yelled into the air, doing pirouettes and flips just as good or even better than a modern aircraft could.

"Icarus, be careful!" Daedalus told off his son for the umpteenth time since they left.

The boy did not listen. He sped up north and rode the wind into an eagle's flight path, startling the creature. He plummeted to the sea like he was born to fly and did a nosedive at the last second. His sandals skimmed through the waves.

Daedalus clumsily caught up with his son. "Stop that!" He scolded.

"Don't worry, Father," Icarus laughed in the wind. "I trust your handiwork–"

Just as he said that the first metal feather shook loose from his wings. Then another. Pretty soon, he looked like a bird shedding feathers, twirling away from him like a flock of frightened birds.

"Glide!" Daedalus ordered. "Extend your wings! Stay as still as possible!"

He did not listen. He flapped desperately to assert control. The more he did, the more feathers shed from the frame. First, the left wing went, then the right wing, soon after. In the end, he was just a boy in climbing gear, falling down into the deep blue ocean, never to be seen again.

THE LABYRINTH
PRESENT DAY

Percy woke with a start. Not one of them could tell the time of day while they were in the underground maze, well maybe except for Grover. But one thing is for sure. The constant groaning of the maze now sounded eerily like the screams of the boy who plummeted to his death.

Breakfast was plain as hell. It was a far cry from what they were used to at the Dining Pavillion. Looking at his food now, Naruto couldn't help but miss the unlimited ramen he was served at the table. With their plain food, the meal came and went in the blink of an eye. Pretty soon, they were continuing on their way.

As they continued to navigate the maze, they were completely confused, especially Annabeth, when the stone walls changed to dirt with cedar beams, The quest leader was now getting agitated.

"This isn't happening," She complained. "The architecture should be getting older. Why did it turn to wood?"

Naruto just placed a hand on her shoulder to calm down. She appreciated the gesture and forged on with the rest of the team.

The mine opened into a cave with stalactites hanging low on the ceiling. In the center of the cave, there was a rectangular pit like a grave. Gazing down onto the pit, there was a glint of foil wrapper wrapping a half-chewed cheeseburger floating in brown carbonated muck.

Naruto scrunched his eyebrows. He remembered Bianca telling him about her dreams. "This is–"

"You know about this?" Percy looked at him.

"Not me," The blonde shook his head. "Bianca did. This is most probably Nico's doing."

Grover pinched his nose, looking away from the site. "No wonder it reeks of the Underworld's stench in here."

"Ghosts were here," Tyson whimpered. "I don't like ghosts."

"Is he summoning the dead?" Annabeth asked. "Why would he be summoning the dead?"

Naruto shook his head. "Bianca didn't know either. This is probably because of her near-death experience. Whatever's happening here, someone must be leading him on."

"Then we have to find him!" Percy chimed. He tried running off in a random direction, but Naruto stopped him.

"I know we have to find him, but there's no sense in running off and end up getting lost here," Naruto advised. "We don't want to end up like that milkman."

Percy shuddered. "You're right, but how do we find him?"

Naruto turned to Grover, "Can you tell where he went?"

The satyr concentrated for a bit. His nose twitched, trying to discern where the scent led to.

A few seconds later, he pointed to a tunnel that had a light presumably at the end. The group followed the tunnel, and when they made it to the source of the light, it turned out to be coming from a grate. Beyond said grate, the quest goers could see trees and a blue sky.

"Where are we?" Percy asked a question. No one answered since none of them knew the answer to it.

Percy waited for an answer, but a shadow fell across the grate.

Mooo!

Came a sound from whatever creature covered the daylight shining through the grate. It turned out, the creature was a cow, but it was no ordinary cow. They were a weird color – bright red, like a cherry. The red cow continued to moo, but a hoof fell through the bars of the grate causing it to step back.

It was then that the satyr was hit with a realization. "That's not a grate. It's a cattle guard."

"A what?" Percy asked.

"A cattle guard," Grover repeated. "They place them at the gates of ranches so the cows won't get out."

"How'd you know that?" Percy asked again.

"Percy, I'm a satyr," Grover rolled his eyes, then looked away with a tinge of pink on his cheeks. "I may or may not have fallen victim to one of these things."

"I guess there's one way to keep you from stalking my sisters when they come to camp," Naruto remarked with a chuckle.

"Hey! I don't stalk on the Hunters!" the satyr protested.

"Gee, could have fooled me," Naruto returned with dry sarcasm.

"As much as I like to listen to you two argue, we should get back on track," Annabeth spoke up to prevent his two teammates from deviating farther from their agenda. "Hera said we'll pass by a ranch. She was right." She continued. She seemed to be having a hard time admitting that last part.

"That's good and all, but how do we get up there?" Percy asked.

To answer his question, Tyson reached up to the cattle guard giving it a blow that caused it to pop off and fly out of sight. There was a loud clang followed by a startled moo.

"Sorry cow!" Tyson called out with a blush.

Once everyone was out of the tunnel, they took a look at their surroundings.

Rolling hills stretched as far as the eye could see. It was dotted with oak trees, cacti, and boulders. There was a barbed-wire fence running from both sides. Cherry-coloured cows roamed around grazing on clumps of grass.

"I knew it," Naruto said as he recognized the cows. "They're Uncle Apollo's cows."

"Apollo's what?" Percy asked.

"Apollo's sacred cows."

"Holy cows?" Tyson chimed in.

"Pretty much," Grover shrugged.

"Who knew he'd be hiding them all the way out here," Naruto said looking around. "Wherever here is…"

"Wait," Grover stopped anyone else from speaking. "Did you hear that?"

Everyone heard it. There was a distant baying of dogs. The sounds got louder. The underbrush over to their side rustled, where two dogs broke through.

There you are.

Naruto's brain translated the growls.

The dogs' whole body came through. It was then that they realized that the two dogs were just one dog. It was a greyhound, long and snaky and sleek brown, but its neck diverged into two heads. It came out in a stance ready to attack.

"Arf!" Grover greeted in the friendliest manner he could, as friendly as his scared feeling could muster.

The two-headed dog bared its teeth and continued growling.

Any last words?

"Woah there, Orthus," a voice came from the woods.

The man came lumbering into the area. If Naruto were to give a description of the man, it would be Father Time. Well, that would be taking liberties. The 'Father Time' description would stick if he were redneck and got totally jacked. He wore jeans, a 'DON'T MESS WITH TEXAS' shirt under a denim jacket whose sleeves were ripped to reveal his muscles. On his right biceps was a crossed-shape tattoo. Finally, he was carrying a giant club, as big as a nuclear warhead, with six-inch spikes bristling at the end.

The two-headed dog listened to who Naruto guessed was his master, but not before getting out one last growl to prove his point.

This isn't over.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here," The ripped man said in an accent that matched his appearance. "Cattle rustlers."

"No, no, no," Annabeth said, playing peacemaker. "We're travelers. We're on a quest, you see."

"Half-bloods, eh?"

She nodded. She placed her hand on her chest and introduced her team. "I'm Annabeth, daughter of Athena."

"This is Naruto, son of Artemis," He gestured to the shinobi. "This is Percy, son of Percy, son of Poseidon, Grover, the satyr, and Tyson, the cyclops."

"Yes, I see that," The buff man answered.

"But how did you know?" Percy asked.

"Well, that's because I am one, sonny," The man said. "I'm Eurytion, son of Ares. You came through the Labyrinth like the other one, I reckon?"

"By the other one, do you mean Nico di Angelo?" Naruto asked.

"You know the other one?" The now-named Eurytion knitted his eyebrows.

"Knew it!" Grover cheered at being able to pinpoint the exact location.

"We need to see him right away," Percy demanded.

Eurytion shook his head. "I'm afraid I can't do that, son. We get a lot of visitors in this here ranch, but not many ever leave. I suggest you leave now before it's too late."

He was acting weird, though. He kept glancing behind him like he was expecting someone to be listening in on their conversation.

"We're not leaving until we see Nico," Percy remained insistent.

Eurytion grunted. "Then you leave me no choice. Come with me. You have to see the boss."

LATER

The group walked through the woods, the same way the son of Ares came. They weren't treated like hostages or anything. The muscled-man just walked ahead of them, his weapon slung across his shoulder at the ready. Naruto figured that Orthus was a guard dog, but it seemed like he was taking his job way too seriously. He kept growling a lot, and kept jumping in the bushes to chase away animals. What was weird though, he kept sniffing Grover a lot.

They walked along the path, that seemed to go on forever. What made things worse was that the temperature felt like it was pushing 40, which was odd since they just came from California. It was so hot that you could see the heat shimmering off the ground. They even saw the fences coated with asbestos to prevent them from burning up in the weather.

The crew passed by dozens of different animals. Aside from the flies buzzing around them, there were red cows, fire-breathing horses, and a bunch of others that seemed to get weirder as they passed.

"Say, what are these animals for?" Percy asked out of curiosity.

"We raise animals for a lot of clients, from Apollo, to Diomedes, and…" His voice trailed off. "...others."

"Like who?"

"No more questions."

He snapped, and the rest of the way was quiet. Percy didn't bother to press further. He was drenched in sweat by now, and he would give anything to be out of the sun.

Eventually, they made it out to the woods, and here they were. In a big ranch house made of white stone and wood, perched up on a hill.

"Don't break any rules," Eurytion said sternly and started listing them off. "No fighting, no drawing weapons. And most of all…don't make any comments about the boss's appearance."

"Why?" Percy asked. He just had to.

"You'll see," was his cryptic answer.

"Welcome to Triple G Ranch," As if on cue, the so-called boss of the ranch marched up to the steps.

The man looked normal if you just looked at the head. His face was weathered and brown probably from years of working under the sun. He had slick black hair and a black pencil moustache like those you see worn by villains in the movies. (Personally, that would be the biggest red flag yet, but we decided to trust him, for now.) There was also a smile on his face; it wasn't friendly at all, Percy could tell that much. It was an amused smile more than anything.

The part that made Percy hold his tongue, though, was his body. He looked like three people in one. His neck is connected to the body like normal, but he had two extra chests, one on each side, connected to the shoulders with a few inches in between. His left arm grew out of his left chest, and the same on the right, so he had two arms, but four armpits, The chests all connected into one enormous torso, with two regular but very beefy legs

He was wearing the most oversized pair of Levis that any of them had ever seen. They could probably imagine how many X's that came with the L. His chests each wore a different color of western shirt, green, yellow, and red, like a spotlight.

"Say hello to Mr. Geryon," the cowherd introduced his boss.

"Uh nice… ranch you have here," Percy said as he looked up from the pudgy man's chest. He had to hold his tongue so hard there.

"Hello sir," Annabeth spoke for her crew. "We're–"

Geryon didn't wait for her to answer. "Yes, yes. I have been informed of you. Annabeth Chase and her monster friends."

"Who told you?" Naruto narrowed his eyes. "And how do you know our names?"

"Excuse me?" Grover protested at the same time.

"That man is wearing three shirts," Tyson spoke up as if just realizing that.

Geryon frowned. He knew that was a jab at his chest.

Before anyone could speak up. Someone else came out of the glass doors that Geryon came from.

"YOU!" the newcomer screamed as he saw who the boss of the ranch was talking to. The sound of a blade scraping with its scabbard followed. Although, the blade's sound abruptly stopped. Eurytion was instantly in front of him with a hand on the sword arm.

"Tut tut, Mr. di Angelo, need I remind you the rules of my ranch," The boss told him off.

"Nico?" Percy spoke up, recognizing the family name.

"SHUT UP!" Nico yelled at Percy before turning to the boss again. "But Geryon! They let my sister die!"

"But–"

He tried to protest, but Eurytion's imposing presence in front of him told him otherwise.

"Fine," The Son of Hades finally conceded.

"Nico," This time it was Naruto. "Bianca told me what you have been up to."

"Do not speak her name!" Nico raised his voice. "You let her die. You don't deserve to speak her name!"

"But she's alive," Naruto simply said. "Whoever told you otherwise is lying."

Relief could be seen on his face, but at the same time, he was cautious. It just sounded too good to be true.

"No…Why are you lying to me?" Nico slowly said.

"Am I?" was all that Naruto replied. "How many times have you tried to get into contact with her spirit?"

"No, but–" He was getting swayed now.

"She can tell what you are doing, even when she's at camp," Naruto explained. "If you would just see reason."

"O-okay," Nico finally said. "But if I find out you're lying…let's just say you wouldn't like what would happen."

"Just trust me."

"Fine."

"I would never have imagined that the two of you would have some history with each other," Geryon said amused at the interaction. "Out of all my visitors in this here ranch, you know how to spice up a rancher's day."

"Uhm, thanks I guess," Naruto said, not really sure how to respond to that.

"But you still didn't answer our question," Annabeth reminded the boss. "How did you know about us?"

"It's my business to know about who visits my ranch, darlin'. Everybody pops into the ranch from time to time. Everyone needs something from ole Geryon."

For the first time since they left on the quest to free Artemis, the crew from Camp Half-Blood was able to take a good look at Nico. He was considerably thinner and paler than before like he hasn't eaten for a good amount of time or hasn't been exposed to sunlight for a while. Even his wardrobe had changed. He now wore black clothes, and on his side was a sword as black as midnight.

"Now that everything is settled," Geryon clapped his hands together. "Shall we take a tour around the ranch?"

Naruto remembered this vehicle. He saw it when Annabeth took him to a zoo in Virginia. It was like one of those kiddie trains that took you around the zoo. This was something like that. It was painted black and white, in a cow-hide pattern. To complete the look, the frontmost car had a pair of longhorns strapped to the front, and its horn sounded like a cowbell.

Everyone sat around the middle, except for Eurytion who took a nap at the backmost car.

"As you can see, we run a big operation here," Geryon said, gesturing around his ranch as he drove. "We have horses, cattle, and exotic animals too!"

He drove over a hill, and Annabeth almost jumped out of her seat.

"Are those Hippalektryons?" She pointed out. "I thought they were extinct?"

Where Annabeth pointed, there were the strangest animals Naruto had ever seen in his life. Each animal had the front half of a horse and the back half of a rooster. The rear feet were huge yellow claws. They had feathery tails and red wings. As the two of them were getting into a fight over a pile of bird seed, they reared their wings at each other until the smaller one ran away, with a hop in each step of the rear legs.

"Rooster ponies!" Tyson said in amazement. "Do they lay eggs?"

"That they do, young cyclops!" He answered enthusiastically. "They lay eggs once a year. Their eggs are always in demand."

That sounded wrong to Naruto. As the son of the goddess of wild animals, he had to say something. "Isn't that illegal?"

"Nonsense, boy!" the ranch owner waved him off. "Besides, you haven't tasted their omelettes."

"That's horrible! They're endangered!" Grover protested.

"Bah, gold is gold!" Geryon waved him off as well and returned to his tour. "And over on this side, we have our fire-breathing horses. You may have seen them on your way in. They're bred for war, naturally."

"What war?" Percy asked.

"Any war!" Geryon answered, with a sly grin on his face. "We've been breeding them since the First Titan War!"

"Anyway," he continued. "Over yonder are our prized red cows."

"We saw them earlier," Naruto said. "My uncle's cows."

Geryon nodded. "You see, your uncle is a busy god, so he subcontracts us to look after them. These, we breed vigorously."

"Why?" He asked.

"Their meat is very much in demand."

Grover and Naruto looked scandalized.

"You can't do that!" The satyr yelled. "That's against ancient laws!"

"Uncle wouldn't allow that!" Naruto added.

"Bah, they're just animals." He shrugged. "And if Apollo disapproved of it, he would say something."

"Something tells me he doesn't know," Percy muttered.

"Wait," Annabeth said spotting another thing in the distance. Everyone followed her gaze, and those who were in the know widened their eyes.

"Those are—"