Son of the Suns
Chapter 5
Disclaimer: I own neither franchise.
Percy didn't know what to make of this new place he found himself in. Naruto assured him that he'd get used to it, and despite the uniqueness of Camp Half Blood's facilities being rather overwhelming, he was starting to find his place here. The Camp had a lot of mundane activities like Canoe races and Archery lessons, and there were some more unique ones like physical combat and sword fighting. The former was one that Naruto seemed to be the best at, even among the children of Ares.
It had been a few days since he had woken up at the Big House, and Percy had been put in Cabin 11 with the other unclaimed Demigods. There wasn't a lot of space, but strangely enough, Percy hadn't felt this comfortable since the last time he was with his mom at Montauk before this past visit and the Minotaur attack. Every morning, he would wake up and head down to the Dining Pavilion for breakfast, then he would meet up with Annabeth for lessons on Ancient Greek, and suffice it to say, Percy never thought that a kid with dyslexia would have had such an easy time learning a second language.
After that, his schedule shifted a bit depending on the day. He would either help with lunch prep, help out at the camp store, clean the Pegasi stables, pick strawberries in the fields or help polish armor, depending on what day it was. After that was various forms of combat training, and, aside from Pegasus riding, he really wasn't very good at any of them. His first archery attempt resulted in him learning some colorful new insults in Ancient Greek as a Dryad yelled at him for shooting her tree with a wayward arrow.
The rest of his day proceeded at a similar pace, until after dinner when the Campers would have tournaments in combat or volleyball, though Percy found that Naruto had been banned from everything except volleyball due to him wiping the floor with the competition on a regular basis.
And finally came Friday evening when the Campers prepared for Capture the Flag.
xXsceneXx
"So, we do this every week?" Percy asked Luke as the members of Cabin 11 prepped their armor and weapons for the match.
"Every Friday," said Luke as he measured Percy's torso, "You look like a seven, maybe an eight."
Grabbing a bronze breastplate, the older Demigod pushed it into Percy's hands, "Here, try this on."
Percy raised an eyebrow at the request, but complied, strapping the armor on. Unfortunately, it wasn't a perfect fit, and Percy prayed that he wouldn't need to run anywhere wearing this, as it was definitely going to hinder his movements.
"It feels kind of weird," he commented, "are you sure I have to wear this?"
Luke laughed, "Unless you want your friends in Cabin 5 to destroy you, then I'd keep it on. You shouldn't have to worry too much though. We've got this match in the bag."
"Really?" asked Percy, "Why?"
"It took us almost a thousand promises and traded favors, but we managed to secure an alliance with Cabin 7," said Luke, "we have Naruto on our side."
"Ok," said Percy skeptically, "and that's good why?"
"Are you kidding?" laughed Luke, "The kid's literally a one-man army and dominated his first Capture the Flag match. Hell, I really look forward to the next time the Hunters of Artemis stop by if he sticks around."
"He's really that good?" asked Percy.
"Trust me," said Annabeth as she walked up with a frown, "speaking from experience, he is like a force of nature. You can't plan for him, so you just have to plan around him."
"Basically," said Luke, "while we only have Apollo Cabin and Athena Cabin on our side, we're the ones at an advantage."
Percy wasn't sure one Demigod would make that much of a difference, especially when it sounded like virtually all the other Cabins would be against them, but he deferred to the others, as they had been here longer.
"So, what's the plan then?" asked Percy.
"Since you're new at this, I have an easy role for you," said Annabeth, "you're on border patrol. When our 'one-man army' kicks things off, it'll be your job to take care of any stragglers that try to flank us."
"If you say so," said Percy, "but how will I know when things kick off?"
"Oh, you'll know," said Luke, "just listen for the chaos."
xXsceneXx
"So, this is boring," Percy muttered to himself as he paced along the banks of a creek that flowed through the forest.
He had been patrolling his assigned location since the start of the match, and not much had happed since then, despite Annabeth and Luke indicating that having Naruto involved in this match meant that all hell *ahem* hades, would break loose.
"Still," Percy sighed, "I wish they were clearer about what the signal would be when things 'kick off.'"
Suddenly, almost as if in response to his thoughts, several muffled explosions were heard from the woods, along with several yells of indignation from various campers.
"I guess that's the signal," mused Percy as he listened to the chaos, "sounds like they weren't kidding about the chaos."
At that moment, Clarisse burst into the clearing with several of her cabinmates, all of them well armed and sporting sinister smirks on their faces.
"Hey there new boy," growled the Daughter of Ares with a smirk, "we're gonna get some payback for earlier."
"Really?" groaned Percy, "I seem to recall that you guys started this, or does memory loss run in the family too?"
"You're gonna get it now Prissy!" growled Clarisse as she charged at Percy, with her fellow Children of Ares flanking the Demigod, blocking off his exits.
The Daughter of Ares lunged at Percy, stabbing at him with the spear she wielded in her hand, moving with a surprising amount of speed for someone of her muscular bulk. Percy brought up his shield to defend himself, but it seemed that was the wrong move, as a numbing electric charge shot up his arm, causing him to drop the shield, leaving him open for a thrust that tore through his sleeve and left a shallow cut on his arm.
"Hey!" Percy protested, "No maiming!"
"Looks like I'll be losing my dessert privileges then," snarked Clarisse as she readied her spear for another go.
Percy backed away from the bigger girl, but thanks to her cabinmates blocking the way, he was forced to stumble into the river. As soon as he touched the water though, something changed. A surge of energy flowed through him, not like the shock from Clarisse's spear though. This was invigorating and it filled him with power, and he felt the pain from his injuries fading away. Suddenly, the odds against him didn't look so bad.
Clarisse and her siblings noticed the change in his demeanor and rushed forward, eager to end this and get back to helping their allies take down the Demigod force of nature that was Naruto Uzumaki, but, thanks to this new power up, Percy was having none of that.
One of Clarisse's Demigod brothers swung his Celestial Bronze sword at Percy, but with the strange boost he had received, Percy deflected the blade with a swing from his own before bashing the edge of his borrowed shield into the Demigod's face, his helmet keeping him from receiving a broken nose, but the impact to his skull putting him out of the fight. Percy didn't stop there though, and he swung his leg out and swept the legs of another of Clarisse's siblings before using the flat of his sword to ring the bell of another with a solid strike to her helmet. As the final Child of Ares drew near, Percy quickly disarmed him with a quick technique that Luke had shown him during sword fighting class, before knocking him out with a good shield bash.
"You're dead!" yelled Clarisse in anger upon seeing what happened to her siblings. She couldn't believe that Percy had taken all of them down, but the evidence was right in front of her. Now, she had even more reason to want to take him down.
The Daughter of Ares lunged forward with her spear, but Percy dodged to the side, using his shield to catch the shaft of her weapon and cause it to swing wide before bringing his blade down on the wooden rod, cleaving it in two.
Clarisse stared at the remains of her weapon in shock before snarling at Percy and tossing aside the broken spear. She was about to lunge at him and try to take him on bare-handed, when the sounds of yelling broke through her angry haze, and Luke burst through into the clearing holding the Red Team banner aloft.
"NO!" yelled Clarisse, "It was a trick!"
But it was too late, and as Luke crossed over the boundary line, the banner changed to a brilliant silver with the caduceus symbol of Hermes emblazoned on it, ending the match right there as Chiron blew his horn to signal their victory.
Clarisse stormed off in a huff and Percy relaxed a bit only to jump out of his skin when Naruto leapt down behind him and slapped him on the back with a huge grin.
"Nice job Percy," he said with a smile, "you really showed them, and thanks to you we had a clear shot at the flag."
"Yeah," muttered Percy, "I just had to get clobbered to do it. I guess it was lucky that they came after me when they did."
"Luck had nothing to do with it," came Annabeth's voice, nearly causing Percy to jump in surprise as the girl materialized out of thin air next to Naruto, a Yankees Baseball Cap in her hand, "everything went according to plan."
"How the hell did you do that?" exclaimed Percy before catching on to the latter part of her sentence, "wait, what do you mean 'plan?!' Are you saying you wanted Clarisse and her siblings to attack me?"
"Wanted? No," said Annabeth, "Did I expect them to do so and plan around it? I might have. Besides, I was nearby in case things got bad, not that you needed it though. You really took them down hard. Surprising for a new arrival…unless you're Naruto of course." she finished with a sigh, "he is practically chaos personified. It's better to point him at a target and plan around him."
Percy sighed and was about to step out of the river and rejoin the members of Cabin 11 when a loud animalistic growl split the clearing, causing the gathered Demigods to cease their celebrations and scramble for their weapons while Chiron shouted orders to the campers. Not long after, a large black hound leapt through the trees and landed in front of Percy's position, the monster's form resembling a snarling mastiff with eyes that glowed like burning coals, fur as black as a moonless night, and a muscular body the size of an average sized rhinoceros. Percy couldn't help but step back as the beast snarled at him, causing him to trip over the bank of the river as he exited the waters, falling backwards on the banks as the creature closed in.
The monster quickly lunged at Percy, its claws poised to tear through the Demigod's flesh, and for a moment, everything slowed down for Percy and he held his hands out in front of him to defend himself, and suddenly, he felt the same strange tugging feeling that he had felt when the toilets had exploded and drenched Clarisse and suddenly, water surged forth from the river, slamming into the monster and knocking it to the ground. Before it could get up and recover, a cluster of bronze-tipped arrows were shot into the creature's neck courtesy of Chiron's bow, causing the beast to disintegrate into dust.
"What…was that?!" exclaimed Percy, but to his surprise, all of the other Campers were staring at him with wide eyes, having seen what he did with the waters of the lake. Thus, it was left to Chiron to explain.
"That Percy," said Chiron, his tone displaying that he too was shaken by what had just transpired, "was a Hellhound. Normally, they patrol the Fields of Punishment in the Underworld. Seeing one here is most unusual. As were the abilities you displayed here today."
"What do you mean?" asked Percy, but before more words could be spoken a glowing light appeared above his head, causing the assembled Campers to gasp, "What's going on?"
"It is determined," said Chiron seriously.
Curious about what was happening, Percy looked up above his head and, though it was fading away, saw a glowing green symbol of a trident floating there, shining its light down on him. One by one, the other campers began to kneel in respect, though the Ares campers were a bit begrudging about it, allowing Chiron to make a declaration.
"Hail Perseus Jackson," said Chiron as he kneeled and held his arm across his chest in a salute, "Son of Poseidon, Earthshaker, Storm Bringer, and God of the Sea."
So yeah, this chapter was mainly Percy centric and followed a lot of the book's plot, but I promise things will be different in ones to come. After all, this is a story about Naruto, not Percy. I have big plans for things to come. So, stay tuned.