I'll keep this section short. I've changed how the PJO powerscaling works. Everything is tighter. Demigods and monsters are closer to god level than in canon. The gap is still there and it is pretty big but a god can be beat by someone under the right circumstances. Leo can beat Demeter because of the elemental disadvantage and what-not.

Well If she wouldn't just turn him into a bail of wheat.

It's less of just switching the powerscaling and just adding more Greek Myths info to it. Hercules beat Ares. Diomedes wounded Ares and Aphrodite (with Athena's help granted but he was a mortal too so yeah) and the minotaur was feared in a world where every other person was a child of a god, probably Zeus.

Also things are more tied to domains. Hermes' kids aren't just quick, they're insane, and Percy's boost in the water isn't slight at all.

Now that you're up to speed, Enjoy!


In another situation, Naruto would be smiling.

He'd be baring his teeth, making sure it was smug enough to get on Sasuke's nerves. Each punch he got, he would take without a grunt and he'd return.

He misses that. He misses the hit on the face that would burst his nose, not chisel at his heart.

He misses the clash of elbows in the middle of training ground seven, and not the meeting of Rasengan and Chidori in a valley God knows where.

Power flows through and out of their techniques. Kakashi's lightning technique carves through the ground on one side, scarring the valley with deep, jagged gashes, while on the other side, his Rasengan swirls the winds about and creates tornadoes.

He snarls, a deep rumbling in his throat. "Sasuke!" he yells. He glares right at the boy's red eyes. The eyes that caught Orochimaru's attention and made him mark Sasuke with the curse mark.

Everything had snowballed from there, hadn't it.

He's sure the feeling of hate that claws up his lungs isn't helped by the appearance of the Kyuubi's chakra. It forces each breath to be a moment later than the last. It draws his concentration and keeps it away from where he wants it.

Every moment has the potential to be the moment when red takes over his vision. No, he decides. No.

Sasuke glares at him with determination in every haggard breath . Naruto can see him struggle with the heavy amount of effort and concentration it takes to use the chakra taxing Chidori for the third time, and a part of him hopes that means this'll be done soon.

"Naruto!" Sasuke manages through gritted teeth. He wishes he'd stop fighting so hard.

Especially, Naruto thinks as sweat drips down his face and pools on his chin, for something so stupid.

The two forces in their hands scramble for dominance. "What don't you understand," Naruto hisses, "You're my fri- my brother! I'm not letting Orochimaru have you!"

Sasuke's face twists harshly.

"My brother is still out there," He spits back, like venom is on his tongue, "You are nothing but a stepping stone in my revenge."

For a moment Naruto's snarl falters. In a singular statement, Sasuke steps all over the memories they've had, and for a second he's left speechless.

Sasuke's glare falters, and for a moment he can see a shred of guilt pass over his face. He can see a war of vengeance and remorse play out in his eyes. (It's too late, Naruto has already clamped his jaw and gone back to snarling.)

Before Sasuke can say anything, an apology? Naruto would cackle, he hears something else. He nearly makes his head all the way up to look when he feels his technique quiver in his hands. Naruto hurries a look back down and feels it stabilize.

He looks back up, though his mind warns him not to. A small far away boom above them, is the theory that runs through his head, but as he squints into the clear skies he doesn't notice anything out of the ordinary.

He brings his eyes down, for the final time, when the air cracks like a whip. A blue beam descends into their techniques like a heavenly spear.

It's ethereal and shiny but really thin and small; not even able to dwarf the eye of the clash, even in the light it emanates.

He's pretty sure he hears Sasuke whisper "What the hell?" and Naruto agrees wholeheartedly.

The technique warps. The colors turn as white as a blank canvas and with a noise same in sensation as the one you got by scraping your nails on a chalkboard, they swirl into each other

It goes for a second, another, and a third. Naruto watches it change with bated breath and a tilt forward, his ears scream, and his eyes visibly get worse, but he only leans closer.

Left behind is a compressed ball, smaller than a tennis ball, with hazed, dangerous edges. It has the nasty smell of destruction that Naruto can't help but ruffle his nose at. The sound fades away with a smoke he hadn't even realized had come.

Naruto's hand doesn't move an inch when he tries to pull. The energy between his fingers dances haphazardly, as if to taunt him.

Then, it churns. Violently.

The sweat on his forehead doesn't go cold, it doesn't.

He understands it's going to blow before it does, and it's going to kill them both. In horrendous, painful ways. He has a second to feel a tightness grip his heart, before the new concoction explodes outwards in a white flash.

He remembers that moment, the look of sheer agony on Kabuto's face when his Rasengan landed, when his guts were being swirled in his chest, and he's sure that this is karma on the hundred fold.

He's tossed aside with the wind, a sear of heat torches his skin even under the Kyuubi's protection, crisping his skin tan and filling his nose with the smell of burnt flesh. It isn't anything like the smell of bacon, it instead stings in the back of his throat like he's eaten ash.

Naruto would usually spare the energy to be disappointed.

Every pore of his existence hurts with the fury of a thousand suns. His body pains in areas he didn't even know could pain; like the tips of his nails, the sweat on his forehead and the ends of his hair.

Naruto's sensitive ears go blank with ringing. His vision is subjected to the most vibrancy an explosion can have. It's a vibrant shade of rainbow, that expands outwards to the sky. Pinks and blues. Greens that pop over Yellows that sing.

It's so magnificent for something so painful.

He tumbles on the rocky grounds, scratching his skin open and painting the floor the deep crimson of his blood. His back makes contact with the Valley's incredibly sturdy walls and it creaks and cracks on contact.

For a singular, frightening second Naruto can't feel his toes, then he feels the Kyuubi's vile chakra poison him with some new nerve connections. Sasuke isn't so lucky.

Naruto has the moment to feel a pool of dread before the sound of Sasuke's head cracking open reaches him.

His breath hitches. Bile comes up with the bitter taste of regrets whilst all annoyance is torn apart to tatters of guilt. Twelve isn't an age to die like that. Twelve isn't an age to die, period.

The Kyuubi's cloak dissipates at the same time as the white in his vision does. The moment he can stand he's running. No, he decides. No.

Every step rings with a hit he'd shared with Sasuke. It depends on the step, if it is a hit he took for Sasuke or one Sasuke inflicted on him. He rejects the notion. It isn't the time for flashbacks, he thinks, especially when Sasuke isn't dead.

Naruto is sure he isn't. (He's only going over to check if he has a concussion… yeah… then he'll drag his body to Konoha and figure out everything in the morning.)

Naruto's a second to a vantage point when choice is ripped from his grasp.

His world flips on its axis. His stomach upends itself whilst more bile rises up his throat and presses at his mouth. Naruto stumbles forward and nearly falls on his face.

He catches himself, a fraction of a second from hitting the floor. The mosquitos biting his neck pause in confusion, the same way he does. He moves after a second, frowning, and the mosquitos move too..

The world revolves around him. The rocks melt together and the ground gets farther away then comes closer, like he's a child playing with a microscope. Naruto's cheeks flush red.

He's never had a cold, but he imagines it felt something like this. Tamer, though. Much tamer.

His legs crumble under him. His hands don't make it in time, and his head hits the floor first.

Naruto expects a sting on his forehead, a jingle to his brain that'll promise headaches for days to come, but he just slips through the ground easily, like a hot knife through butter. His hair goes through first, and he shivers at the cold, liquid sensation that flows through his locks.

His arms come up as feeble resistance, and try to grab at something. They land on the floor, sink in easily, and refuse to come out. It's sticky too, Naruto realizes belatedly.

He sails down till the sun's rays don't reach anymore. His sight is enveloped in a sheet of darkness. His teeth sink into his lip and his fingers pull on the fabric of his pants tightly.

It's over before the queasiness can settle in his stomach.

(He understands, almost intrinsically, when the darkness changes to his closed eyelids, the eyelids a part of him wants to keep closed and just sto-)

Naruto wakes up.

His ears, all at once, are assaulted with high volumes of music, thrumming vibrations and an enthusiastic crowd that stampede around him with their loud voices and unmatched vocals.

A beat passes, a beat he spends rapidly blinking, then shock and deep confusion bleed out of his face as the sound strikes his ears and scrunches his face. His fingers move to block the former when high heel meet one in the sky and pin it down to the ground.

It snaps loudly. He hisses through gritted teeth as ice cold pinpricks stab at his finger, and what feels like lava flows through it too.

The woman's feet wobble and she looks back at him, not with an apology on her face; but accusation. He glares at her retreating form, nurses his finger, and gets up with a huff.

The crowd moves in various directions, to games that draw his eye, and a pub that has a stock bigger than he's ever seen before. The walls are decorated with posters for drinks, apparently available at a bar or another in the area, that he's never heard about.

His eyes race across and at each person he stops by his eyes widen even more.

A gentleman walks by him, dressed prim and proper in a fancy suit, then a hipster saunters by, reeking of sweat and with his cap twisted sideways. Naruto stops staring at the guy when he feels a soft but deathly cold hand prod at his back. He looks behind his back and catches the girl about to prod him again. "Hi," he says, and she stiffens.

Her skin is a healthy shade of olive, her face is marked with freckles spreading from her nose to her ears. She wears a green cap, and wears it like a regular person.

"Hi," she says. She gets up from kneeling. "Sorry for waking you," she continues and he takes note of how small her voice is.

"I should be thanking you. I wouldn't want to be stepped on anymore than I have."

She nods along but her dark, rich, spooky eyes dance around his frame as if she's observing a destroyed art follows her gaze. "Oh," he says, lamely. His pants are tattered and blood soaked, his shirt is a rag in his hand and the less said about his jacket; the better.

He wonders how many people stepped around his still body without a second's pause.

The feeling of bitterness that usually comes up when he knows he isn't being acknowledged, doesn't. Maybe a part of him notices, from the stale air or the attire perhaps, that these aren't his people.

A respectful person may have introduced themselves or maybe even addressed his shabby clothing. "What is this place err..."

Her freckles dance around as she shuffles on her feet. "Bianca," she says.

She lifts her hand and points behind him. "And uh.. it's right there." He twirls and follows the finger's natural range. His eyes find a receptionist's table at first sweep, and he nearly turns back to Bianca.

Then he sees a bright sign in his next one. It has the name of the establishment splayed out in neon electrical lighting, propped up by the entrance area (Not an exit, he realizes, no one is leaving through it).

**Lotus Hotel and Casino,** it reads.