So, first off, let me just say, sorry about how long it's been since I've wrote a chapter for this story, a lot has happened in my life that I couldn't get myself to continue with it until now, not to mention how my Muse wasn't really into this story for a LONG time.

But I'm back now to write it, though, whether or not I'll continue it with more chapters will be anyone's guess, cos you never know when I'd lose the muse again.

The Brother Of Hercules

Chapter 31

Maelstrom & The Memories

Speedy Pitas

Right now it was just the guys hanging out, seeing as the girls wanted to have a "girls night" and everything, though, really, they wanted to "gossip" with Helen about her "time" with Maelstrom, which obviously caused the girl to blush, especially with Rachnera making lewd remarks, which caused the girl to blush and faint at the "thoughts" that the Spider-Girl kept putting in her head, which caused the others to have to wait until Helen had recovered and woke up, even when Cera and Tempest had tried to threaten the spider, she still kept going, finding Helen's fainting spells amusing, so it was gonna be a LONG while before she could finish her story.

Which is why, right now, Maelstrom, Hercules and Icarus were hanging out at Speedy Pitas for some guy time, but also the guys were pretty hungry, since that's pretty much how guys are.

Though while Mael was busy eating his food, along with Hercules daydreaming about being a constellation in the night sky, Icarus was quickly taken before he could yell out for help.

It wasn't long for the brothers to notice Icarus's disappearance, wondering where he went, until a bunch of people wearing black clothes started jumping out with weapons in hand that seem strangely "familiar" to Maelstrom, "I must warn you, we are a hero-in-training!" Hercules soon exclaimed, knocking his brother from his thoughts.

But it also caused Maelstrom to state, "Every time, it's like a "thing" with you to use your "hero voice" when it doesn't really have the right "impact" yet." While sliding his hand down his face in frustration, which caused Hercules to be slightly sorry, since even he must admit that it feels more "forced" and unstoppable for him to NOT use his hero voice while facing a foe.

Before long, both brothers had made quick work of the enemies, where at the end, they soon hear someone clapping.

"Well done you two, you both passed the test."

Which pretty much confused the brothers about the reason behind the "test" in the first place, though they soon hear Icarus talking about the stealth attackers eating raw fish, while slapping one of them on the back, which causes the person to cough up some fish, though at the moment, Maelstrom was looking at the two sticks between the stealth attackers fingers, making the "itch" in the back of his mind even more unbearable, since there seems to be an overshadow of an orange wearing child being overlaid with the stealth attackers. (A.N. No ninjas back then, so they call them Stealth Attackers.)

Though soon the mysterious stranger began informing the brothers about a secret mission he wishes to give to the two, yet Maelstrom's mind kept "drifting" towards the Stealth Attackers and their weapons, mannerisms and eating habits, making him feel that he should KNOW those styles.

Soon after, the agent was gone, having told the brothers, though mostly Hercules, about Midas and him abusing his power of turning things into gold, along with evidence being a dog made of gold.

Where as soon as the man had vanished, along with his men, Maelstrom soon had a glazed look in his eyes, before falling flat on his face, catching Hercules's attention, "MAEL!?" Which caused the teen to worry about his brother, along with Icarus.

Quickly, both took Maelstrom to the one person that might be able to help Maelstrom, though they were mostly guessing if they could help or not.

Athena's Temple

Before long, both Icarus and Hercules had explained to the goddess of wisdom what had happened to Maelstrom, having no clue why he fainted or what had caused it in the first place.

Athena soon gave Maelstrom a lookover, being worried herself that her "opponent" was unconscious and unresponsive, "To be honest boys, I'm not sure what is wrong with him, but leave him with me and I'll see if someone can help me wake him up." She soon states, wanting to help Maelstrom as best as she can.

Though the two wanted to help Maelstrom out, they knew better than to question or go against a god, especially one with Athena's calibra, so with that, Hercules had decided to go on the secret mission himself, with Icarus helping him by supplying him with gadgets.

All the while Athena turns towards the comatosed Maelstrom, wondering to herself why he ended up in such a state, "What happened to cause you to end up this way?"

Seeing as there was no physical injury to him, she soon realised that it may have something to do with his mind, "I guess there's really no choice in the matter, since I doubt that Hera and Zeus would be too pleased that their son is in such a state."

With that sense of reason, Athena placed her hand on Maelstrom's head, being the Goddess of Wisdom helped in this matter, since she quickly used her godly powers to enter Maelstrom's mind, hoping that he doesn't get too upset about the intrusion without his permission.

Maelstrom's Mindscape

As Athena entered she was able to glance at Maelstrom's memories, seeing all of his adventures and day-to-day life, though she ended up blushing when she saw his "interaction" with all the girls he was involved with, especially the island with the Nymphs when they made him drunk that he lost "control" of himself and everything.

Trying to quickly move on from those memories, since they were obviously personal, but also downright embarrassing and steamy, but because this was someone else's mind, she didn't really have any control on what she saw, seeing as Maelstrom had such strong willpower that it was almost godlike she pretty much had to "ride the wave" of such experiences, but obviously she didn't really account the "euphoric" feeling that Maelstrom's mind had influenced on her either, and with being a Virgin Goddess, she was unable to really comprehend such a torrent of feelings.

But obviously she was feeling the "man's side of things" so she has no idea what the girls were feeling, though by the looks on their faces in the memories it was obvious they were "enjoying" themselves, actually, enjoying would be too SOFT for what their expressions were saying.

Though on the plus side, she was somewhat happy that Maelstrom never really "started" anything with the girls, but obviously he certainly "knew" how to finish it for them.

Shaking her head of those thoughts, knowing she was getting too into the memories, she decided to focus on the task at hand, having at least some power to navigate Maelstrom's mind, she came to a door with a bunch of chains on the floor, showing that whatever was behind this door no longer had these chains to keep the door closed, though this door was almost just as large as her giant godly form, there was a tiny gap open enough for a regular human sized person to squeeze through, so being a curious goddess, she managed to enter through the door as well, feeling some of Maelstrom's psyche on the other side of the door.

What she saw shocked her to no end, she was now standing in a large open area, with it being filled with trees, a river and 3 wooden poles near a metal fence, "Where on Earth is this place!?" She couldn't help but ask, since most minds didn't have a mindscape within a mindscape, so it was pretty unsettling for her to witness such a thing.

"BOOOOOOOOOOOOMMM!"

Before she could contemplate on such things even further, she heard a tremendous explosion close by, quickly making her way towards the area of the noise, she soon came across an even stranger sight, there before her, was Maelstrom, who was at the moment fighting someone, but what she saw made her mind froze in mid-thought.

Since it turns out, Maelstrom's opponent looked like Maelstrom himself, only not as muscular, had 3 whisker-like birthmarks on his cheeks and was wearing a orange outfit that she couldn't quite put a name to it.

"CRRRAAAAAAASSHH!"

Though her thoughts soon jolted back to life, having just witness another shocking sight of Maelstrom being blown away by a spiraling ball of energy, with a yell, "RASENGAN!" Which sent Maelstrom hitting a few trees behind him.

"THIS ENDS NOW! I AM NOT SURE WHO YOU ARE IMPOSTER! BUT I CAN ASSURE YOU, YOU WILL PAY FOR HURTING MY CHESS OPPONENT!" Athena soon exclaimed, not liking this different version of Maelstrom, with said version having a puzzling and confused look on his face, something else that proves that this version wasn't her version of Maelstrom either, which she found upsetting about.

"Whoa! Whoa! Hold on Athena, that's not an imposter, that's someone else, please just calm down and let us explain what has happened!" Maelstrom quickly exclaimed, not wanting this to get out of hand before things could be explained.

So with that, Athena calmed down, trusting Maelstrom's words, though she kept her guard up just in case the other "Maelstrom" tried anything.

With Maelstrom soon explaining things, "As it turned out, those stealth assassins-""just call them ninja!" the other "Maelstrom" quickly interrupted him.

But while Maelstrom was a little annoyed about being interrupted, he continued, "Anyway, when those GUYS appeared, along with their interaction with Icarus, something in my head suddenly "clicked" when they left, like someone unlocking a door in my mind, which is how I ended up here." He waved around, showing that due to the involvement of those "ninjas" Maelstrom ended up here to begin with.

Though Athena was concerned, "But what is this place to begin with, since it feels like a mindscape within a mindscape, which shouldn't really make any sense at all, due to a person only suppose to have only one mindscape in their minds, with the person being unable to enter unless they had powerful meditation experience, which due to Maelstrom's impatiens (no offence Mael), shouldn't be possible." She soon questioned, while apologizing for bringing up Maelstrom's slight "flaw" in his character, which he brushed off, since he knows that's something he'd have to work on later.

The other "Maelstrom" soon spoke up, "Ah, that would be because of me!" He soon exclaimed, catching the pairs attention, "Let me introduce myself, I'm Naruto Uzumaki, nice ta meetcha!" The now named Naruto had a large energetic smile on his face, showing that he's a little hyperactive.

He carried on, "I was a Sage when I was alive, so that was kinda "carried" towards Maelstrom there, which is pretty weird, since he's me and I'm him!" This ended up confusing Athena slightly, since she couldn't really follow Naruto's train of thought, almost like he was unpredictable.

Naruto continued, "Basically, Maelstrom there is MY reincarnation, or at least, my soul's reincarnation, since he doesn't have my chakra or powers, but anyway, let me explain my history then we can figure things out from there!"

While Athena was shocked that there was such a thing as reincarnation, only someone with an extraordinarily powerful soul/spirit could or should be able to retain their memories of their past life, never mind their past life making an appearance like this, but soon Naruto began explaining his life to the both of them, or more importantly, his history first, telling them about Kaguya being the mother of all chakra, since it started with her, followed by her sons, then Hashirama, with the Ninja Villages following, leading up to his parents, with how they were, how they met and how they fell in love with each other, of course Athena had a "proud" smile of Kushina beating up the kids that were picking on her and earning the nickname, "Red Hot Habanero," but that was a different matter.

Along with explaining his father's teammates and what happened to them, along with Obito's involvement and his downfall soon after.

Soon Naruto came up to Kurama's attack, which surprised Maelstrom considering his own animal companion, anyway, Naruto explained the reason why Obito released the giant fox and everything else, along with his parents sacrificing themselves for him, which demigod and goddess were proud of that such people would do such a thing for their offspring.

Then Naruto explained his own history, from his time growing up, all the way to his family, from Zabuza to his fight with Kaguya, it was all an epic tale and adventure for Naruto, with both Greeks hanging onto every word, with Athena being both impressed and in awe of Naruto's life, making her realise that if she was around Naruto during those times, he'd more than likely be her husband at some point, even more than likely due to his unpredictable battle strategies, which caused her to blush slightly because of her train of thought, but also remembering that Naruto was Maelstrom's past life, meaning that both of them were basically one and the same, meaning that she was also thinking of Maelstrom in such a way, though she quickly knocked such thoughts from her head, since it wouldn't do for her to have such thoughts, especially with Maelstrom already having so many girls already.

Though when Naruto starts talking about Jiraiya, the two had mixed reactions, where Maelstrom was surprised that a man would call himself a "Super Pervert" and be proud of it, Athena on the other hand, she was downright furious that such a man existed, though was kinda pleased that Naruto pranked the "pervy-sage" as Naruto calls him, with Maelstrom laughing at the pranks Naruto pulled on Jiraiya, that at one point he collapsed to the floor being unable to stand at such things, though it did explain where Maelstrom got his pranking nature from.

Soon Naruto explained his last moments, along with stating an important part, "Now that I've finished my story, I guess it's time for me to go now." While rubbing the back of his head awkwardly.

Hearing this caused the two Greeks to panic, not wanting such an interesting person to just vanish, but Naruto calmed them down, "Listen, I've lived my life, while I would want to change a few things about it, like growing up with my parents and spending more time with my own family, I can honestly say I wouldn't change anything since it's apart of my past that made me the man that I was, ya just got to remember that I'm just a memory, soon I'll vanish, whether Maelstrom gains my memories and/or experiences I don't know, but it's his life now, I can't be apart of it."

While the two were obviously upset at losing such an important person, Maelstrom more than anything, the two agreed that Naruto's time had long since passed, "Very well Naruto, but know that I'll be writing all of your world's history and your story, while I'm not sure how you (or more precise your spirit) became apart of this world, your life will not be forgotten or just a memory, I will write down every aspect of what you have experienced down and keep it safe." Athena soon explained, which made both Naruto and Maelstrom happy that the goddess would help them out in such a way.

With Athena soon finishing, "And I believe your book's title will be, "The Tale Of The Gutsy Ninja." If that would be alright with you." Cos even though she wasn't overly fond of Jiraiya, she'll at least honour the pervert by naming Naruto's book after the non-perverted smut that he first wrote, seeing as Naruto was named after the main character of that book.

Which Naruto was more than happy about, thanking her in his usual exuberance, meaning he gave Athena a BIG, tight hug in gratitude, which surprised the two Greeks, but Athena relented, since after hearing Naruto's story she knows he wasn't hugging her for "nefarious" reasons.

Soon Naruto began to vanish, along with the background, telling the group that his time was soon passing, "Well, I guess this is goodbye, Maelstrom, I hope you have a good life and that you live it however you want to."

With that, Maelstrom's past life was gone, with the two vanishing from sight as well, showing that they were about to wake up.

Athena's Temple

Slowly Maelstrom's eyes began to open, his vision soon came into focus and saw his girls were surrounding him in worry, along with Helen since she only just started "dating" Maelstrom and didn't want anything bad happening to him.

Anyway, since Athena was the "first" to exit Maelstrom's mind, being a goddess and everything, it was more easier for her to "readjust" to her body, so her hand was no longer on his forehead.

The girls soon began questioning him about what had happened to him, being worried for his health and everything, "Now girls, give him some space, we both went through quite the ordeal and he needs time to adjust, so I'm sure he'll explain everything that had happened in his head since I need to return to Olympus for now." With that she vanished, with Maelstrom figuring she wanted to get to writing Naruto's story while it was still "fresh" in her head, but obviously with her being the Goddess Of Wisdom, it would be easy for her.

Before the girls could question him about everything, Maelstrom explained that it would be best for them to go to his home first, wanting everyone to get settled since what he has to tell them was gonna be a LONG story and he wants them to be comfortable while he tells it.

So with that, the group made their way to their home, having bumped into Hercules and Icarus along the way, since it turned out Maelstrom was "knocked out" for the past 3 days, meaning that Hercules had completed his "mission," though he soon explained what had happened, with Maelstrom nodding that if his mind was focusing on the guy that had "given" the mission, Maelstrom would've been able to see through the plot, but right now the whole group wanted to hear what had happened to Maelstrom, and since Hercules's story was shorter than Naruto's, it was easier to go through it.

Once the group had made it home, with everyone getting some snacks and drinks for Maelstrom's "storytime," since they didn't want to have to keep getting up for things, Maelstrom soon began his tale, or more specifically, Naruto's tale and why it tied to Maelstrom's own life.

Before long night had approached and Maelstrom had just finished his story, with the group absorbing what they had just learnt from him, being shocked that Maelstrom was the reincarnation of someone from another universe sounded like something from a fantasy novel, though the fact that Athena had vouched that what Maelstrom had told them was true made them believe it.

But Maelstrom soon stated that just because he was a reincarnated "ninja" it didn't mean he still wasn't himself, he was still the Maelstrom that they knew, which everyone was in agreement with.

"Still though honey~ It's a shame that you don't have that "cloning thing" that you told us about, it could've come in very handy for us~~~" Rachnera soon finished, with her usual "smile" at the end, which caused the girls to blush at the thought, along with Maelstrom.

Causing Maelstrom to palm his face and exclaim, "Damn it Rachnera, since he should've figured that was what she'd take away from Naruto's story.

Though Hercules was thinking more along the training purposes of the clones, since he can see the benefits of the clones learning capabilities being transferred to the original more helpful, especially during hero works.

Soon everyone had become tired, so they called it a night, with the girls going to their own room, with Helen sharing Cassandra's room, though Tempest had managed to "sneak" into Maelstrom's room without the other boys noticing, while Hercules and Icarus slept on the settee, since there wasn't really any rooms available for them, since Maelstrom's house was "full" so they didn't really have much of a choice.

As for Athena, it took her sometime to write everything she had learnt about Naruto, along with his history, though it turned out that both Zeus and Hera had found out about Maelstrom's unconscious state, most likely because of Hermes finding out because of Hercules during the whole Midas Incident, so the two worried parents had visited her when she had returned to Olympus, where she explained that Maelstrom had woken up and she will be writing down everything she had experienced.

Though both Zeus and Hera were a little upset that they wouldn't get the full story soon, they both understood that when it comes to these sort of things with Athena, it best for them to wait until she finishes, and boy will she have a story to tell them.

But not only that, Aphrodite was concerned as well, seeing as she was slowly feeling "something" for Maelstrom, but she doesn't really know what she was feeling, but she knows that it involves Maelstrom, but until she can figure out what it was she'll leave it be.

The End.

There you have it, Maelstrom having a "meeting" with Naruto, with the ninja giving his story to them, while Hercules was off during the Midas Touch mission, since I figured it was time for Maelstrom to remember who he was, but still retain who he is, since while he is obviously Naruto, he's still his own person, if that makes any sense.

Anyway, at least this way, with Athena helping out by keeping Naruto's story alive, things will still remain the same for everyone.

I Do Not Own Naruto Or Hercules.