Welcome boys and girls, one and all, to an update for Manus Inferni. It has been a little bit but I'm happy to be getting an update out for this one. Fans of the original book series know, at least roughly, who it is we are dealing with in this chapter as we left off at the infamous Aunty Em's Garden Gnome Emporium.
A review by freedomringer said: Oh man, I need more of this. Since you already have Annabeth as Naruto's girl, at least in the story tags anyways, I wonder how Athena will end up feeling about her daughter and a Roman mingling together?
My response: Happy to see you like it so far. Athena will be a bit predictable all things considered. However that doesn't make it any less fun when we eventually get to that point. I am looking forward to it I have an arc for that scenario kind of planned as well.
Anyway lets get into this and get going.
Part On: Legionary
Arc Two: Questing Westward
Chapter Five: The Lessons of Survival
The four kids tried their best to keep their wits about them as they approached the doorway to the Garden Gnome Emporium. Grover seemed far less thrilled about the prospect of a nice hot meal than his compatriots, however despite the multitudes of freaky stone statuary surrounding them, the three demigods had a single thought on their mind.
Food. Now.
"I'm so hungry it's like I can already taste my next meal on my tongue." Naruto grumbled as the stepped up to the door.
"Doesn't that seem weird to you?" Grover suggested.
"Maybe, but man I've never been so hungry." Naruto said though he narrowed his eyes briefly. He felt…wrong. Unfortunately all he could think about was a meal to fill his empty stomach.
Annabeth and Percy clearly agreed with him as they nodded with Percy happily knocking on the door to the building.
"I really don't like this you guys. These statues are creeping me out. We shouldn't have knocked." Grover pleaded.
"It's just concrete, Grover." Annabeth waved him off.
Grover bleated quietly. "Just statues? There is something freaky going on here. I mean that one looks just like my long lost Uncle Ferdinand."
"Shush, Grover. Someone's coming." Annabeth prodded him.
"I'm trying to tell you three that I smell monsters here. We shouldn't be here." Grover stresses.
That brought Naruto up short. He would be a fool not to trust in the nose of a Faun. Especially one that was evidently as experienced with monsters as Grover was. He turned his eyes over toward the statues and felt all manner of warning bells go off in his head.
"Maybe Grover is right. Maybe we shouldn't be here, you two." He said cautiously.
"You're overreacting. His nose is just full of the smell of those Furies." Annabeth dismissed.
Before either could reply though, the door swung open and the scent of food enveloped all of them along with the sight of a tall middle eastern woman in a complete body covering that hid even her eyes behind a veil. With the intense smell of food filling his nose once again, all thoughts of leaving slipped from Naruto's mind. His stomach practically roared and he lost any sort of worry about a monster attacking them at the moment.
Food first, monsters later.
"Oh my. What on earth are you children all doing here? It's far too late for you to be out all alone. Where are your parents?" She asked with a voice that struck Naruto as familiar. Many of the old ghosts that had lived in the Mediterranean back during the days of the Empire had a vaguely similar accent.
"Our parents…" Annabeth stumbled over her words.
"They're all dead." Percy said almost cheerfully as if he was proud of himself for the statement.
Slowly the group turned to look at him with wide eyes. His grin faded before he cleared his throat.
"I mean we're all orphans." Percy said a bit more sadly this time.
"Orphans, all of you? Surely not, darling!" The woman gasped out.
"Yep. It's really sad. We are all orphans who, uhm, got separated from our caravan." He continued.
"Our caravan?" Naruto asked in confusion as Percy dug their hole deeper.
"Yeah, the circus caravan. They took us all in when our parents passed away. It was really kind of them." Percy continued on causing Naruto to cringe slightly for his own part in this nonsense.
"The ringmaster told us to meet him at the gas station if we got separated. Maybe he forgot though, or maybe he meant a different gas station. Anyway we're lost." Percy continued to ramble.
"That's more than enough information, Percy." Annabeth bit out with mild panic.
"Heh yeah, oh wow is that food I smell, ma'am. I hate to ask but do you think we could borrow something to eat from you? It's been a long time since any of us have had a good meal." Naruto chimed in getting a look from Annabeth that told him he was putting it on too strong just like Percy had been.
"Oh? Of course, of course. Come in you poor dears. Go straight in through the building. At the back of the building there is a little dining area." The woman offered.
"Thank you so much. You're a lifesaver." Naruto said as they moved into the building pulling a reluctant Grover behind them.
Annabeth elbowed Percy in the side with a heated look on her face. "Circus orphans?"
"Yeah, always have a strategy, right?" He weakly replied.
"Strategy? The fact that it worked somehow will forever go down as the most miraculous thing I have ever seen." Naruto replied in exasperation.
"You're not much better. You both are going to drive me insane before we even reach the half way point of our quest." Annabeth said with a sigh.
"I'm not that bad. Still though, Percy, how have you not been grabbed by a monster or the cops yet?" Naruto asked.
"I wonder that about all of you." Grover grumbled.
"Luck?" He replied with a shrug.
"That tracks." Naruto said with a grumble.
Finally they made it to the back of the expansive warehouse of stonework. Naruto didn't think there was a collection of this many life size statues anywhere in the world except perhaps in china. He was pretty sure he had read about an entire army of terracotta soldiers buried somewhere over there.
"Ah, you found it without trouble." The woman said with a smile apparent in her tone, as she caught back up to them.
"Exactly where you said it was." Naruto said with a smile. He was hoping being the perfect sweetheart would mean some hearty helpings of whatever it was she was cooking back there in the kitchen area.
"Of course. Now take some seats and we can get you all filled up." She replied pleasantly.
"Ah, you know we actually don't have any money. Sorry to have wasted your time, I guess we will just get out of your hair and go looking for the…ringmaster." Grover sighed with the last part while shooting Percy a look.
"Nonsense. I wouldn't ever think to charge such sweet young orphans like yourselves. You all look positively famished. I can't stand the sight of it." She prodded pushing Grover down into a seat at one of the steel picnic tables arrayed in front of the cooking area.
"Thank you ma'am." Annabeth said politely though Naruto noticed the woman stiffened slightly at that.
When he looked back at this moment he would be kicking himself for not realizing around this time just what kind of mess that they had all stepped into. However in the next instant he was brought right back into the mindset of a proper legionary of New Rome.
"It's quite alright, Annabeth. Oh you have such beautiful gray eyes, child." Aunty Em said.
That froze Naruto to his seat. He turned to stare at Grover who nodded a bit too fervently to be subtle. Luckily Aunty Em's attention was centered very solidly on Percy and Annabeth to differing degrees. So this was what Grover had been trying to warn them about. They were in the middle of a big trap now and half of their squad had no idea and Naruto couldn't warn them about it without setting it all off.
The moment Aunty Em picked up a tray from the other side of the half wall set into the cooking area, he nearly felt tears in his eyes. It wasn't fair that this was going to be spoiled. The food she brought out were probably the juiciest looking burgers and most perfectly golden brown fries he had ever seen and the smell was like a drug wafting into his head as much as his lungs.
It had to be magical in some way. He refused a monster could produce food that smelled that heavenly otherwise. After she set down the food she even pulled out a set of milkshakes to go with it.
"That's playing dirty." He grumbled.
"What was that sweetie?" Aunty Em asked.
"Heh, nothing, just admiring it all. It all smells amazing." He said all while fighting the urge to dive head first into the food like Annabeth and Percy were. Grover cheated as his attention centered onto the table cloth. It must be nice to have the stomach of a goat and be able to eat just about anything.
"Uh, what's that hissing sound?" Grover asked.
"Hissing? Oh you must have keen senses, Grover. That is probably the fryer in the other room." She explained.
"Uh, yeah. I eat my vitamins. Helps with my eyes and ears and nose and all that." Grover said a bit weakly.
"Hey, where did you get all of your statues from?" Naruto asked, hoping he could make the monster reveal it's game a bit early and clue in the others as to what was happening without giving himself away completely. It was better if he and the others could get the first attack in.
"I make them myself." She replied.
"Huh, no kidding! They are really good. Almost real. All lifelike and everything. THeir faces are just kind of messed up sadly." He said getting her to stiffen a bit.
Annabeth slowed in her eating as she looked between Naruto and the woman before staring intently at the statues as well. Percy unfortunately seemed unbothered and just scarfed down a huge helping of fries alongside his chocolate shake.
Aunty Em stared down Naruto however. Clearly he had been a bit too direct with his probing. She was on to his game and he could practically feel the monster hidden behind the veil thinking about how best to kill him.
At least that was what he thought until she tilted her head to the side slightly. "Please, go and look through them. Perhaps you will find one that you like a little better. THough i admit the faces are incredibly hard to get right."
"I see. Well maybe I'll have a look around after we are all done eating? I prefer staying close to my fellow orphans, you know, the ringmaster is always going on about found family and things like that." Naruto forced a chuckle out and the woman turned her attention back to Percy as finished off the last of his shake.
"Do as you wish." Aunty Em said with a hint of annoyance in her voice. "You know I used to have companions as well. Two sisters. We were incredibly close. Now though, all I have are my statues."
Naruto felt some sadness for the monster before him. Like so many others her story was more of a tragedy. However, by now it mattered little. The building full of innocent lives stolen away by this monster who once was a woman was more than enough reason for him to hate her existence and want to tear her head from her shoulders.
He noticed Annabeth finally stiffen as she put two and two together and realized who it was they were dealing with. He had no doubt that were she to be as experienced as he himself was, then she would have realized who it was before even Grover.
"Two sisters." Annabeth mumbled quietly as horror filtered into her eyes.
Aunty Em turned toward her, but before she could do or say anything Naruto roughly kicked the table, sending the remains of the food and shakes spilling all across it and onto the floor.
"Tsk, Tsk, Tsk. Clumsy boy." Aunty Em glared at him from behind her veil. She leaned forward to clean it up and Naruto saw his chance.
"Nobody look at her!" Naruto roared as his sword appeared into his hand and he swung down at Meduse while she was leant over the table.
The table was shredded into two halves. Everyone stumbled back, but unfortunately the covered up monster twisted unnaturally and avoided his sword entirely.
"What are you doing?" Percy shouted as he and the others moved back from the broken table.
He began to turn toward Medusa, likely to apologize but Grover tackled him to the ground and forced his face into the floor to cover his eyes.
"Run! Keep your eyes on the ground!" Annabeth screamed as she bolted into the maze of statuary.
Grover dragged Percy after him as he finally began to realize that they were in fact dealing with a monster. They too disappeared into the rows of stone figures.
Not Naruto though. Someone needed to keep her busy and he figured he had the training as a soldier of new Rome to do just that. He charged her head on and made another swing at the spot where he figured her neck roughly was under her coverings.
He pulled his strike back at the last moment though. Medusa shoved one of her creations up between them as a makeshift shield. A faun, young, clearly a small child, and frozen in a state of terror.
"You bitch!" He howled as she chucked the figure at him and he caught it to make sure it didn't shatter across the ground.
"You know, I pity you for what happened in your legend. Your curse was cruel but now you deserve nothing but hate. You're a real monster at heart!" He bellowed out at her.
The woman slipped into the shadows of her expansive warehouse and simply cackled back at him.
"You should see for yourself before you judge me too harshly, boy!" She hissed out as she suddenly reappeared and attempted to force her face in front of his own.
Clamping his eyes shut was the only thing that saved him from being petrified on the spot. He had to keep them locked tightly closed even as he swung out with his sword once again. Instead of hitting her he managed to block a strike from a metal rod she had armed herself with.
It was pure luck, and it was not to be repeated as her second swing easily passed by whatever guard he threw up to defend himself and cracked him across the side of the head making him stumble and fall on the floor.
His training kicked in immediately. Naruto rolled with the blow and was back to his feet in an instant. Unfortunately with his eyes closed he couldn't manage much and had to brave a glance at his surroundings.
In the single moment where he opened his eyes before locking them tightly closed again he took stock of the situation around him.
Grover was in the air with the help of tennis shoes that reminded him of artwork of Lord Mercury. No doubt that son of Hermes' gift passed on to the team for their quest. The wings on the sneakers flapped rapidly giving the faun the advantage he needed in the air to plant a few good kicks into the monster that was swinging back at him with the metal bar she had cracked Naruto in the head with a moment ago.
Percy, like Naruto, had taken to his only real defense against something like the Medusa and shut his eyes tightly. Despite that he had summoned forth his own sword and was swinging it a bit wildly at anything that made too much noise near him.
Annabeth was nowhere to be found.
Just as that thought registered however the girl reappeared beside him and yanked him backward away from the cursing monster who was trying to get a good strike in on the flying faun shaped pinata. Daring to open his eyes at Annabeth's presence, Naruto smirked at the sight of the object floating just in front of him. Annabeth was holding it but she was wearing the invisibility cap.
"Good idea." Naruto said as he eyed his own distorted reflection in the large ornamental glass ball held in her hands.
"I would have preferred a polished shield or something but this will work in a pinch." Her voice came out of the air beside him.
"It's perfect!" He replied before using the reflection it provided to line up his next attack and slam home his blade straight into Medusa's chest.
She screamed in pain and doubled over around the black metal blade rammed into her, but like most monsters that possessed their own legends she had a very specific requirement to being defeated. They could stab her all day or even set her on fire, but as long as her head remained connected to her neck she would manage to tank whatever damage they dealt to her.
"Percy! Use the reflection in the glass!" Grover shouted, causing the son of Poseidon to open his eyes once again.
They widened for a moment when he saw the orb of green glass hovering just above Naruto's head and the boy facing away from the injured monster while holding his sword still stuck in her gut. Her hands were locking around Naruto's neck though and slowly she was forcing his head back around to face her.
The secret roman cringed as he felt Medusa's breath on his ear as she leaned in to speak to him.
"How is it none of them noticed you were with this little group? Your heritage is going to get someone into serious trouble." She laughed before gasping at the reflection of the Sea Spawn in the green orb being held up by a still invisible Annabeth.
Percy charged in without another thought and leapt up just as he brought his sword down. Medusa burst into a cloud of golden dust as the sword cut through her neck in a clean slice. The head bounced a ways with a wet sickly splatter sound.
Thankfully Naruto quickly yanked the tablecloth off of one of the remaining tables and wrapped the head up with it before someone made the mistake of looking upon it. With that he set it down and dropped down onto a bench to catch his breath.
Slowly the others began to join him, Annabeth removing her cap and planting herself beside him as they all stared at the red and white checkered ball on the floor. None of them said anything for a little while, though Grover did work up the nerve to give the packaged head a solid kick that spun it in place on the floor.
"We just killed the…you know what." Percy said, recalling the fact that names had power.
"Yeah. Go team." Naruto said with a laugh.
"Why didn't her head turn into dust like the rest of her?" Percy asked the group.
"Spoil of war." Annabeth explained. "Just like the horn you got from the thing back at camp."
"Oh."
"Yeah, good thing Naruto wrapped it up. She's dead but locking eyes with her can still petrify you."
"Of course it can." Percy blew out a sigh at that.
He stood after that and wandered into the kitchen area while the others remained sitting at the table and trying to work out the remnants of nervous energy in their system. That stopped when they heard him begin rummaging around and starting up appliances.
"What are you doing?" Grover called out.
"She might have been a monster but this food is legit. We need the supplies." He responded.
Annabeth was right beside him a moment later, sending him a nod as she shoved several big bottles of water into a ratty purse. Percy and Grover joined as well though Naruto found he had to kind of carefully watch the items that the faun would take. Not everyone could eat what he could. They needed the space for real food.
"Are we sure this will be okay to eat?" Percy asked.
"Yeah. It's all normal food. It was just messing with our heads because she was using a spell to make it more enticing and distracting. Same principle to the mist pretty much. It only worked so well cause we were all starving I think." Naruto said, ignoring the curious look that Annabeth was sending his way.
Naruto focused on making more food for the road as well as a nice big meal of fresh french fries for right now. Partially to avoid participating in the discussion turned argument between Annabeth and Percy regarding the origins of Medusa. Both made good points but both avoided the very clear fact that all demigods were best understanding and acknowledging.
The gods were flawed and cruel, and they were petty worst of all.
It was a bit ironic, he supposed. He considered the gods terrible but he happily did whatever was asked of him by them. Or at least by his father and grandmother. What right did he have to refuse anyway? He was just the same. Just less powerful.
They all were at the end of the day.
Having decided that he'd had enough of their argument, he pulled a new fresh batch of fires out of the fryer and dumped them onto a tray in front of the other demigods alongside a pair of off brand canned soda.
"Oh man, off brand usually sucks but when you have been drinking nothing but warm water for days on end it's amazing." He said trying to derail any further argument.
It worked, though he imagined the warm food had more to do with it since neither one picked up a conversation with him. That was fine. He wanted to keep eating. Who knew how long it would be before they had another good hot meal once leaving Aunty Em's Garden Gnome Emporium.
As they ate, Percy kept eyeing the freshly wrapped gorgon head intensely. He practically couldn't stop staring at it actually.
"Whatever you are thinking, just stop. It's a bad idea." Annabeth told him.
That just proved to be the spark he needed to set off whatever half cocked plan he had in mind. Jumping up from the table he picked through the items in the building until he found all the things he needed and returned with a box, a shipping label, some tape, and a sharpie. Dramatically as he could, Percy clammed the head into the box before taping it closed and fixing the packing label onto it and addressing it to Olympus.
"That's a really bad idea, Percy. The gods dislike being tested by us mortals." Naruto warned him.
"We're the ones being tested. All of us. The gods are just sitting up there on their butts doing nothing." Percy snapped before sending the box off with a drachmae pressed onto the top for the shipping fee.
Silently Naruto could only send a prayer to his father and grandmother asking for forgiveness on Percy's behalf.
Annabeth for her part simply sighed before turning her attention to Naruto. She looked to have come to the conclusion that she could talk to him a bit more evenly than with Percy.
"We need to come up with a plan."
"That's true. We need rest too though. It's already late so we can sleep her for the night. We're all exhausted and we have fresh food here. Not going to get a better camping spot than this." He commented.
Annabeth nodded before digging around for some supplies to make a halfway comfortable pallet on the floor to sleep. Percy and Grover followed suit with Naruto volunteering for the first watch just in case anything wanted to try its luck on Medusa's lair.
As the others drifted off, Naruto set to work with another important task. Securing a mode of transportation for their group as they traveled west. He had no intention of walking all the way to California. They weren't even to the Mississippi river yet.
Slipping outside he poked around the outbuildings for about half an hour before finally finding what he was looking for. The remaining property of Medusa's many victims. Bags, clothes, miscellaneous items, but most thankfully cars.
Only a couple though. Probably ones that Medusa had been keeping around for a few years when they didn't turn up missing or reported stolen. Both of them were rust buckets, but one was definitely used recently since he could tell she had dusted it.
"At least she takes care of her things. Cyclops always have disgusting dens. This is all much nicer." He muttered as he began searching around for the keys.
"I bet." A voice said, causing him to jump and summon his sword only to stop himself as he realized Annabeth had joined him in the shed.
"I could have killed you." He said angrily at her sneaking up on him.
"Maybe you aren't the best to be on watch then. Well, it's not like you are on watch anyway." She fired back causing him to sigh as she was right.
"Just trying to get us something to use to get further west with. Walking is pretty awful at a distance that vast." Naruto said as he put away his sword and continued looking around for the keys.
"It would save us some time. I'll help you look for the keys." She offered.
"Thanks."
They continued searching in silence for a while, before Annabeth brought up the next topic for discussion.
"You have an interesting sword." She commented.
"You have an interesting hat. We fight interesting monsters too." He replied sharply letting her know she was treading into dangerous waters with this discussion.
"Yeah but Stygian iron is interesting even compared to all our other interesting stuff." She pressed on, clearly unbothered by his warning tone.
Naruto remained silent as he picked the lock to a filing cabinet open to see if perhaps there was a keyring locked inside.
"Where did you get it?" Annabeth asked as she stopped searching to stare at him through the dimly lit shed.
Naruto paused for a moment before shrugging and going back to picking open the drawer. "Dunno. Always had it really. I think that it was maybe my father's before it was mine."
Annabeth nodded for a moment returning to her search.
"My hat was a gift from my mom. It was the only thing that got me through some tough moments when I was little." She admitted.
Naruto hummed thoughtfully as she managed to finally get the drawer open and began rummaging through all the tiny items inside.
"Sometimes I think parents are just really bad at showing they care, but I think if we look at things like your hat or my sword we can tell that they obviously do. Even if it's not how we want them to show it." He explained before shouting out in victory as he held up a key ring.
The discussion was over at that point. Not that either really had much more to say on that point at the moment.
The four kids sat around the picnic table staring down at the keys in front of them. Sun shone in through the windows and the damage that they had done was even more apparent in the light. They needed to leave soon before someone who wasn't in the know about monsters found them and called the police.
"So…" Naruto drawled.
"Who has driving experience?" Annabeth asked them all.
Percy shrugged. "I mean there was the bus."
The group glanced at him then back down to the keys.
"I drove like once before." Naruto admitted. He carefully left out the fact that it was a stolen car that turned into a car chase with the police and him wrecking.
He caught the key that was tossed at him by Annabeth.
"That's that then I guess." He chuckled as they all stood up and headed for the old car waiting outside.
They still had a long road ahead of them but at least they had some wheels.
Alright that is all for this one everybody. I hope you enjoyed it.
Till Next Time