The night sky is dark.

The land to his feet is bright and made up of bronze.

The small, quaint houses around are adorned with it, alongside the purest of whites and on the most fascinating of architecture.

There are towers, each at a place at the horizon. It's a sort-of circle with them and the hundreds of bronzed-homes at the center.

One of the towers is the brightest pink he's seen, Another is blood red, an by the front

To his left, there is one tower that is just gold. Nothing else.

The one they confidently head for is the tallest of them all.

The others glimmer, but this one shines. It's got gold, it has white and it has blue and it sings with those colors. Where the other temples have tips at the top, like fairy tail castles, this one is a flat surface up there.

It's miles away but Naruto feels a bad feeling staring him in the eyes.

Percy frowns at the green, yet blue tower, to the slight left to the one Naruto is looking at. "These look familiar," he says, his face scrunched as he tries to pick at a memory that won't rise.

Naruto looks around. Huh. They do.

The memory strikes his head like a lightning bolt, and he snaps his fingers. "Hades' castle," he says and Percy "ohs."

Naruto looks at Percy and his glimmering green, yet blue eyes, and he just has to ask. "Back there," he prods, "The lady trapped was she… someone close to you. Like a mom or a sibling?"

"She'll find it flattering you think she looks young enough to be my sibling," Percy smiles, fondly. "But nah, she's my mom."

Percy's aloofness catches him off guard. "Sorry for your loss," he says anyway.

"What? Dude, no. She's not dead."

"Oh? But she was in the Underworld?"

"She was transported there. A bargaining chip." Percy's face goes bitter as he says that. "But she… should be back in our apartment, somewhere down there right now." Percy loosely points to crystallized floors below them.

He looks up at Naruto. "One of these days, when the world has calmed down, I'll introduce you. You'll love her. She's amazing."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

Naruto decides it's a bit awkward to shift to conversation about the shades of her eyes so he quietly dispels that conversation for later, perhaps for when he meets her.

A comfortable silence runs through the conversation, he and Percy too busy marveling to really focus on speaking, other than 'wows', 'oohs' and 'aahs'.

They step upon the flat surface when he finally stops gawking.

In front of them is a row of seats formed in a sort of circle. Two are occupied. The very clearly 'main man' seat, and the second slightly less grand seat next to it.

Percy stiffens a bit when he sees the second seat is occupied.

They approach.

"Father," Percy bows, and Naruto follows suit a second after. Percy then kneels to the main guy. The main guy who has lightning balls for eyes and a gray, wispy beard that flows as if it is actually made of clouds.

"How rude your child is," he says, "To bring a mortal to Olympus, then to kneel to the master of the home last— the king, in case you needed a reminder." He grunts. "Impertinence runs thick in your ichor, Poseidon."

He remembers the name from when Nico mentioned the fork above Percy and that whole thing just clicks in his head.

He looks to the god, in front of him. Electric eyes disregard him easily.

King. Lightning. Asshole.

Zeus.

To his credit, the two don't look anything like in the cards. Poseidon doesn't have seaweed for a beard, and Zeus' hair isn't golden and tied back in a ponytail.

Creative liberties.

"Sorry if I have offended, sir, but I thought it important you meet the mortal who has apparently been making waves here. I wouldn't want you to think we were attempting any form or treason by deliberately hiding him from you."

Percy's tone is clipped. There is an undertone to it,

One that Zeus doesn't notice, or just doesn't speak on.

"Bring it out, boy. Then begone."

Percy presents his backpack, unzipping it and pulling out the lightning bolt. It thrums and flies into Zeus' outstretched hand.

Zeus grimaces at it like it's murky and muddy and he's forced to hold onto it.

Naruto decides there and then that he isn't going to like the king of the gods.

There is a muttering from Zeus about cleaning the bolt and before the ready, very rude 'fuck you!' can come out of his mouth, Percy shouts for Zeus to wait.

Kronos gets mentioned and Percy's words fade to the back of his mind like rain does after it's been pouring for a while.

"Kronos is rising!" Percy insists, "How can we not focus on that?! We must try and prevent it!"

Naruto blinks. "Prevent it?"

Everyone in the room stills, as if they are just remembering he's there. "Yeah?" Percy says after a second.

"...Oh."

Zeus narrows his sparkling eyes at him.

Naruto clamps his mouth shut and looks down. 'He's just so done with keeping stuff that can hurt people, away from them.'

Well, shit.

His attention is drawn from the corners of his mind, when Percy stops kneeling. Zeus is gone now and behind is the smell of thunder, like burning plastic and fish.

And Poseidon is approaching.

There is a choking awkwardness in the air.

Poseidon stops in front of Percy, a meter too far away. He's trying to form words but he's failing. Hard.

It's a few seconds before he decides on: "I'm sorry you were born, Perseus."

His eyebrows fly into his hair. Woah.

As Percy's face tinges red; hurt and maybe embarrassed, Naruto quietly turns on his heel and makes himself scarce.

When Percy reaches him at the entrance of Zeus' castle, his gaze is conflicted and there is a stiffness to his shoulders.

Naruto doesn't comment and steps easily into stride. Another silence. A bit less comfortable.

Naruto waits outside the door of the Jackson home. Percy tries to convince him to come inside but he stays firm. "The world hasn't calmed down yet," he says and the lies under his words go undetected.

Percy relents and enters his house. And nearly ten minutes later, he's back and his face has brightened.

Naruto has learned that others have this thing he doesn't— a social conscience— so he imagines the mushiness of the reunion might have been tinted by the embarrassment running through Percy.

He does get a peek of Sally Jackson before they leave. She smiles at him from the littlest crack of the open door and it's a warm, homey smile.

Naruto can't imagine Sharingan irises on that face.

"Last stop," Percy says, "Camp."

They cram into the third taxi of the day. Percy rattles off an address that has the taxi driver punching that into his GPS and frowning at them. "What do a couple of kids want at a strawberry farm?"

"Do you care?"

"No," the guy relents and once again they're away.

The ride drawls on.

Naruto blinks, and hours pass between every shut and every rise. The smell of cheap, strawberry car-freshener bounces in the back of his nose and the sound of gum-chewing feels like daggers to his ears.

His bones creak louder than any rocking chair when he gets out, but he smiles. He smiles at the birds pecking each other's cheeks and the moon fading under the horizon. He smiles at the wisps of orange sun.

He walks a bit ahead as Percy deals with the finances and stops atop the hill. He rests his hand on the pine tree, and brown twigs prick and tickle on his palm, and he looks down to the land going down.

Beauty.

There are red dots taking from right underneath him to the edge of the Island. Red, supple strawberries, attended by brown-haired, young teenagers with vine crowns in their hair.

A similar set of kids without the vines in their hair, giggle as they take turns and fail at climbing a wall spewing with… is that— wait– no way, lava?

There is a big, blue house near the center of the camp and a sort-of circle of cabins near the end of the camp space. Faintly he can see designs, like one is pink embroidered, and another has a dead boar mascot in front of the cabin.

One is just gold. Nothing else.

Trying to get closer, he bumps into an invisible wall and stumbles back. He rubs at his nose, red and sizzling. He tries again, and the wall pushes him back, flat on his butt.

Percy laughs at him as he joins him on the hill. He passes the border easily, like it's just not there.

"Funny," Naruto says.

Percy faces him on the other side of the invisible wall. " I, Percy Jackson, allow access to Naruto errr…"

"Uzumaki."

"Yeah, that."

The tree seems to hum a tch, fine, whatever before the air swishes and his fingers pass through the border.

He walks into Camp Half-Blood.

There is the sound of armor clinkling in the distance before someone calls with their female and gruff voice. "Hey, you!"

The person reaches them, pulling off her bronze helmet with red feathers at the top. Underneath it, she's got vicious red eyes, and unruly brown hair. She squints at Percy. "Jackson? You survived?"

Percy glares at her. "Better luck next time."

The girl snaps her attention to him. "Whose this?"

"Naruto," he introduces himself.

"Dumb name."

"Yeah? What's yours?"

"Clarisse."

"Dumb name."

"Heh." Clarisse quirks up her lips. She turns to the camp. "Jackson's back!" She yells to no one but the wind. "And he brought another demigod reject."

"Oh," he says, "I'm not a demigod."

Clarisse pauses. "What?" She turns to Percy.

Before she can say anything, a crowd forms . Rapid questions start coming Percy's way, about the quest, Olympus, their parents.

Demigods older than him push to the front of the lines with admiration in their eyes and burning curiosity on their tongues.

In seconds the crowd has gone from half a dozen to a couple of them.

Naruto steps back to make space, nearly outside the camp's border again, and leans back onto the pine tree.

Then as the sun peeks over the horizon and the world shines orange, he sees a peek of the coliseum near the lava wall, the forest supernaturally green, the next batch of demigods racing up the hill to see the demigod that survived a quest, Annabeth, Grover—

A peek of blonde hair.

He freezes.

Naruto steps to the side of the crowd, and watches the smaller group approaching. The guy at the helm has no extolment on his face, just horribly masked bitterness. He's got blue eyes, blonde hair and a wicked scar from his chin to above his left eye.

Luke.

A breath runs from head to toe. Before it's done, he moves.

The grass swishes. Danger is in the air.

He finds himself yelling a war-cry, like he's actually Greek or something. Everyone turns to him. Luke too.

That's the only thing that saves him from getting hit. He dodges under his swing, and scampers off a few paces back.

"What in Hades?" Luke says as he turns to him. "Who— you."

Naruto points at him. "What are you doing here?"

"Me? You're the intruder."

He hears whispered yelling from Clarrise; "Who the hell did you bring to our camp, Jackson!?. A splutter. "I- I don't know what he's doing!"

Then Percy with a more steady tone. "Um, Naruto, err, stand down."

He frowns up the hill. "Stand down? This guy works for Kronos."

Mutterings from the crowd and the leaves on the pine tree rustle as if to say Careful buddy.

Percy looks distantly uncomfortable, Naruto gets the feeling he wasn't supposed to say that.

"Luke is cool." Percy says after a second. "He's no spy,"

"You know this son of a—"

"Uzumaki," Percy cuts off. "Stand down."

Naruto stills. "You're not the boss of me," he says but he feels his arms relax next to him, without his permission.

Luke looks around, pretending to be innocent and confused. He does a pretty good job of it and no one bats an eye.

Except him.

Dumbasses, the lot of them. He'll figure a way to save them from themselves.

Count on it.

Naruto forces his head away from the demigod. A horse, but a man, trots up the hill, and simply because he's bedazzled, Naruto focuses on him.

He's got the authentic lower half of a stallion, pure as snow fur and sharp hooves, but his upper half– his upper half is a professor lost on his way to his next math class.

The other guy next to him is so regular, it takes him until they've reached the top until Naruto notices him. He has an unruly peach fuzz, curled up hair, and a healthy blush on his chubby cheeks.

The crowd disperses, maybe because they are freaked out by him, or maybe because they are freaked out by the horse-man.

Percy catches up to him and grabs onto his shoulder before Naruto can approach. "What in Hades was that?"

Naruto blinks, then he squints. "I fought him at the casino. Just after you left."

"He was here at camp at that point."

Naruto huffs. "You just gotta trust me, Percy."

"Right."

Naruto's face goes red. Why bother even asking him if he decided to be so stubborn?

"Come on Percy! He literally said "you," when I showed up."

"Did he?"

"Yes! That guy, he works for Kronos." He points to Luke, who is pretending like he's freaked out to Annabeth.

Before Percy can spout whatever sarcastic comment that doesn't believe him, the fat guy with a permanent wine blush stalks over to him.

Up close, he can see how vividly purple his eyes are, like berries that are a bit too ripe.

"Stop throwing my grandfather's name around so willy-nilly. You'll endanger my camp."

His voice is ice cold.

Naruto is not impressed. He turns his hot face at him. "Sorry, I guess? I didn't know you couldn't call people by their names here."

It's oddly sarcastic, where Naruto prefers to be a little more... direct. Percy is rubbing off on him. And he's only known him for a day.

(Has he? Really? Cause those ey-")

That fat man looks as if he's holding himself back from swinging at Naruto.

The horse-man stops in his horse-strides just in front of them. "Don't mind Dionysus. Would you like to join us for a game of pinochle? Perseus, you too, so we can question you on why you brought a mortal to our camp?"

Dionysus, apparently, huffs. "That's easy. Because this isn't just another mortal, he's 'special'"

Horse-man cocks his human head. "Hmm?

"He's older than us." When horse-man blinks, Dionysus waves him off with a grunt. "Oh, I'll explain it later, Chiron."

Naruto turns to Percy. "What's pinochle? Sounds awful."

Dionysus rages.

When his words become the truth and Luke betrays Percy in the forest when Naruto is not there to help, he doesn't say anything, he smirks at Percy as walks out of the infirmary–

–and that's probably worse.