Very Important!

I messed up. I messed up bad. If you're reading this fanfic after 12/3/24 (Month/Day/Year) then ignore this because this has been changed already.

Last chapter, I had Tiresias say a prophecy. Decent prophecy whatever, but I'd crucially forgotten to switch out the test prophecy I'd written a couple of weeks ago with the one I actually wanted in the story.

The one I posted last week for the story went like, "Like I told her, If you accept yourself before she revives anew, then you survive. If you continue to deny yourself then you will burn till burnt. To be the one who succeeds, you must accept what is inside of your heart."

The actual one I wanted is, "I foresee Naruto that you will never land on Konoha grounds, but you will get home. If you continue to deny then you will see neither. For she will raise your home to the ground, and become the world's new ruler."

Everything else is the same. I hope you don't hate me for this, but I genuinely thought I'd switched out the two and gaped like a fish when I saw I hadn't. ARGH! (Previous chapter has been edited to switch these two.)

Naruto finally docks his boat on Circe's island, and steps out of it. As he's doing so, the wood creaks horribly, and Naruto cringes.

The boat is nearly at the end of its course. Even with Bellona's magic, there are limits to what can be done. Without options to fix it, he's just wasting time looking at it, so Naruto turns back to look at the island.

It looks just as he expected. Paradise on Earth that's been set aflame. The fire is bright and emerald. Green. Greek.

There is no sound on the island except the fire. There are no signs of the ones who destroyed the place or those who survived. There is only the remains of various skirmishes.

Naruto wonders if he should enter the burning building to check for survivors, or if he should just bite the bullet, turn to a distraught Bellona, and tell her that he's sorry.

He's not allowed to choose. A voice grows from the distance. She's yelling at him as she approaches, but her words are drowned by the gushing fire. The girl has green skin and red hair. Her eyes are brown and her sundress is covered with almost yellow and translucent blood, like she bleeds tree sap.

Oh.

This is a dryad. She probably does.

"Do not enter!" She warns. "The fire will melt your bones and turn you to ash." Melting bones doesn't sound fun, so Naruto tentatively steps a bit farther from the building. "If you are looking for survivors, you won't find any in there."

"Are you sure?" Naruto asks. With the corner of his vision, he sees Bellona step to his side. She doesn't have a look of mourning.

The dryad responds to his question but she's drowned out by Bellona speaking at the same time. "Ask her where the pirates went," she suggests.

The dryad does not react to Bellona's voice. She continues speaking. "And the pirates burnt all the other tree—"

"Where'd they go? The pirates?"

The dryad sniffles. "You'd seek vengeance for me, hero?"

Naruto is about to interject with something like, 'No,' but his mouth is covered by a hand that isn't real but can still touch him. Bellona shakes her head.

If Naruto was a bit more daring, he would have bit it. He subtly shrugs it off, but keeps his mouth shut as the dryad continues.

"They went that way." She points North–East. "They are likely the only ship on the sea. They will be impossible to miss."

"Thanks," Naruto says. He's about to turn around and leave, when he's suddenly hit by pity. This dryad is stranded. Alone. And he doubts she'd be able to set back up on this island.

"Look, if you're trying to put your roots down somewhere. You should check out Camp Half–Blood. Long Island. Somewhere near Montauk. They have a no littering rule, and lots of dryads like you."

The dryad sniffles and nods again. "I'll check it out," she says.

With that said and done, Naruto gets back in his boat, and it turns around to the location the dryad mentioned, and starts towards it at even faster speeds than before.

You know that idea that's so prevalent in video games? The stealth ones at least. The one where the brutes never look up, so the vigilante or assassin can scale over them without worry.

This makes sense for game design, of course. Naruto can imagine those games would be annoying as hell if you did nothing wrong and some stupid goon went, "Holy crap, it's the bat!" And you have to replay the stage again.

In Konoha, this couldn't be further from the truth. Ninjas could scale walls so of course one is going to check on the ceiling if they are guarding something.

But in this world that ability is not very common.

It's still not as simple as running upside down. Because, one little creak of wood and someone is going to look up immediately. And if the person doesn't see something, they're not going to dismiss it as a possible small animal like a rat.

No, they're going to be on guard. Naruto can imagine one of the first thoughts is, Oh my god. Don't tell me I'm in a freaking horror movie. Then periodically check the ceiling now that they are alarmed.

All this to say, there needs to be a bit of thought to travel undetected. Not only for the reason he just mentioned, but also because there are a lot more people than are supposed to be on the ship. He hears one mention that two upstarts took the other one of their boats.

Naruto starts his sneaking mission by tying his boat to the ship's hull with the orange coat. Slipping it between a loose board, then scaling up the same way he did the Clashing Rocks.

He sneaks around the deck, then he goes upon the ceiling once he's entered the ship's inside and maneuvers himself quietly around. He passes a place where all the pillaged treasures from the island have been stored. If Naruto was swimming in time, he would have taken a detour to snag himself some gold. He'd lost his Lotus card, after all.

Then he's just a door away from where Bellona says they're keeping her children. He knocks out the guy lazily sitting in front of the door, and drags him into one of the small rooms filled with cleaning equipment. Then, he runs back silently.

He shuts the door behind him, making sure there isn't even a creak, then when it comes together, he turns around.

The first thing he notes is that the room is bathed in darkness, because there isn't a lit candle and the room is very deep into the ship.

Naruto turns to Bellona, and the goddess snaps a flaming torch into his hands.

All of the prisoners look up at him. There are about fifteen, which is a lot more than he expected. Naruto probably should have brought a bigger boat.

"Hi."

No reply.

Naruto goes to call for Bellona's children, then remembers that he doesn't actually know their names. "Uh, who am I looking for?" He asks the goddess.

By the weird looks given by everyone. Bellona is hiding her presence, so Naruto looks like a madman that talks to himself. "Hylla and Reyna," the goddess says. She is very unsubtly looking in their direction.

Naruto approaches the two she's talking about. They shrink away. One brandishes her silver knife, and the other raises her hands with magic swirling around her fingers.

He raises his hands to the air. "I intend no harm," he says, "You're Hylla and Reyna, right? Your mo—"

He is suddenly hit on the back of his head. Naruto nearly falls over. He turns to Bellona, whose arm is where his head was a second ago.

"What the hell!?" he demands.

"It's against Ancient Laws for me to directly interfere with my children's lives, so be… subtle. Skirt around it."

"Did you have to hit my head to communicate that?" Naruto complains. "It still hurts from where Hercules almost split in half, dammit!"

Bellona rolls her eyes, like Naruto is being dramatic. He is not.

Naruto turns back to the two. Everyone else in the room is listening close now, and leaning in. "Sorry about that," he says, "...someone who is related to you asked me to come and get you."

"Bellona?" One of the goddess' children figures out and asks. "She cares?"

Bellona gives him a warning look. Naruto isn't stupid. He can 'skirt' around things like this. "I can't confirm if she's your mom or not," Naruto says, "But she does care. She's just not good at showing it."

"Um, okay." The same one says. "If you can get us out of here, then we would be eternally grateful."

Naruto is reminded of the Roman situation back in Alaska. If they had been as receptive as this, he would have had a lot less stress.

"Nice," Naruto says, appreciatively.

"What about us?" A prisoner that isn't Hylla or Reyna asks from the back. "You're going to just take them while we suffer here. You know how men are; what they might do to young girls."

Bellona huffs. "I can see these men's hearts. They are unkind, and vengeful, but not filled with lust. These girls will be executed. A simple death."

Naruto half-turns to her. "You think we should leave them?" He asks with a half raised brow, decently surprised.

The question makes everyone pause. Except Bellona, who looks unapologetic.

"They will only slow us down and we would have to find them travel for them to leave."

Naruto does agree that it's logical. But when has he ever agreed with logic? "Very cold, don't you think?"

"Everyone's heart is cold. Anyone who disagrees is pretending."

Naruto makes eye contact with her. "Wrong," he says, "My heart burns." And he cuts the bondages for all the prisoners. After he's freed them all, he opens the door, and peeks his head out. There is no one in the corridor.

He's about to usher them forward when Bellona, rubbing her sinuses, asks. "What is your plan?" She asks.

"Well for now, I don't have one. Not yet, at least," Naruto admits. "Maybe I can wrestle control from these guys, and take the ship for myself. That'll probably work."

Maybe and probably aren't very assuring for Bellona or the prisoners.

Bellona sighs. "You'd have to travel to land. If you want to catch up to your friends; that'll slow you down too much."

Naruto frowns. "Catch up to my friends? Um, what?"

There is a slight shift that happens over Bellona. Naruto couldn't tell you what changed if there weren't a few gasps that ring around the room.

Bellona has made herself corporeal, then. Finally, she didn't really didn't need to wait so long.

"Gather," She tells the prisoners.

After a second of confusion, shock and deliberation, one of Bellona's kids stand up and the both of them just stare at each other. Bellona seems to remember that she is about to skirt around, and looks past her daughter.

Reyna, he believes, looks down.

"I cannot take my— these children with me, and I cannot come back once I've taken these other individuals, for I'll be lacking an excuse to be here," she says. "Naruto, I'm entrusting you with their safety."

"Take?" Naruto asks as he approaches. "What're you going to do?"

Bellona looks back to the other prisoners that have collected together. She puts her hands close together, breathes in and out, then claps suddenly.

The prisoners vanish. Where thirteen people were a second ago, there is only dust. If there were any belongings around then they have been taken as well. The room is bae except for him, the two sisters and the goddess.

One would expect this to be a bit tiresome but, Bellona's next breath isn't even a bit more laborious. Not even the kind of tired after you've walked up the stairs. Bellona simply did, and it was as easy as breathing for her.

Naruto watches her with confusion. "Where did you send them?" He asks.

"To safe land. What they do henceforth is up to them,"

While it's not important, Naruto spares a second to feel bad for the mortals among them that will struggle to adjust to society. In Bellona's expression, he can't see any of that guilt in her. Likely if he were to say that the action isn't being nice, she would respond with 'precisely.'

Naruto looks at her again, likely for the last time,

She's not nice, but despite that, he can't help but think that she's alright. Maybe there is a comparison bias, because he is comparing her to gods and goddesses he's heard only bad things about, but Naruto doesn't hate considering this goddess as a friend. Even if she pisses him off with her ideals.

Then again, he knows the only reason he didn't get killed a couple of times for his disrespect is because Bellona wanted her kids safe and he couldn't ensure that if he was a daffodil.

The goodbye from Bellona is a nod. Demanding. Hopeful. Respectful. Bellona vanishes like the prisoners; without a trace left behind. That's the last he sees of her.

He turns to Hylla and Reyna. Both look like their mother, but he can see the mortal in their face. Their eyes aren't blank like Bellona's, but matte black.

He pulls them both onto their feet. "Let's get the hell out of here, no?"

Hylla looks up at him. The girl is small. "How?" She asks. "Are we going to sneak back somehow?"

"I've got a better idea cooking up," Naruto responds.

Hylla and Reyna look at him with confusion, but also trust. Naruto wonders when he got that. He pulls up his sleeves, and warns them to step back.

The feeling of chakra thrumming through his veins is like ice water passing through your throat. Naruto breathes in oxygen and lets out the essence of life itself.

Naruto learned from Khione. He's not going for the punch first.

The Rasengan lights up the room better than the torch ever did. Naruto watches it swirl. Something he's seen more than a dozen times, but has never lost its wonder.

"What witchcraft is this?" Hylla asks.

The cool kind, thank you very much.

He digs his hands into the hull. There is a torrent of noise that pours out of the technique, the destruction of wood, and the following gusts.

While wood splinters dig into his palm, and the entire ship shakes, there is a nice little hole formed that is about the size of Naruto. While it wasn't intentional, the hole is above the water line, and hence the ship doesn't start sinking immediately.

Hylla and Reyna stare at him with pure amazement. Naruto feels his cheeks go red, and tries not to feel too prideful. He fails badly.

There is the pitter-patter of approaching footsteps, and Naruto turns his head back to the sisters. "We can't let them find us here," he says, and offers the hand that doesn't have cuts.

Despite the questions in her gaze, Reyna hesitantly puts her hand in his. Naruto puts her on his back, and makes a clone to do the same for Hylla.

Naruto puts his hands on the edges of the hole and pushes him and Reyna up, then twists so that he puts his feet on the hull. Reyna makes a confused and alarmed noise as he does this, then again when they don't fall down and stick onto the ship.

The clone does the same. A second after he's made it over, the door harshly opens. Naruto peeks, and sees one of the pirates come in and survey the area.

Where a ninja would check the outside of the hull, the pirate sneers at the hole he made. "They aren't here! They've already moved." The man says.

"Dammit!" Another says behind him. "Watch the sea! There is no way fifteen people have already passed our range."

The man turns around and heads for the deck. That's going to be a problem.

He waits till he can't hear the footsteps or the chatter, and then starts speaking. "We'll go around the ship this way till we find my boat," He says, "Tell me if the blood rushing to your head gets really bad, okay?"

The two girls nod.

If water walking didn't make ripples, he would have just gone around that way. But with the threat of being caught by just one observant guard, he goes around by the ship's hull. Making sure his steps are light enough that they don't create bangs for anyone inside.

Stealth takes a lot of work, y'know?

Neither of the girls gets the chance to complain even once before Naruto has found where he parked his boat.

He gets onto it slowly, while the clone carrying Hylla watches above for if anyone notices the few gentle waves the motion makes. While the clone scales down, Naruto does the same.

When no one says anything, Naruto tears his gaze from above, and immediately after one of the pirates on the deck shouts. "We see their ship!"

And Naruto thinks, Oh shit.

But he's not looking at Naruto. He's looking further beyond, towards where the sun is setting. Confused, Naruto turns to see what the pirate is shouting about.

And indeed there is another ship. It's moving on a perpendicular line to the pirate ship, and it's a bit ahead. Along with the fact the dryad had said that the pirate ship was the only ship on the sea in this direction, everything came coincidentally together that it looks like Naruto is fleeing.

The ship itself is as old as the pirate one. Maybe even older. It's one of those Greek ones. With no below or hull to speak of. Just the deck, the sails and lots of oars.

"Attack!" The pirates shout. Cannons on the sides of the ship are fired, and they clatter into the fragile wood.

Boom!

Naruto hears a very familiar voice as one of the people on the Greek ship yells out in surprise. Naruto's sure he knows it, but doesn't have a lot of time to dwell on it.

Reyna pats him on the shoulder, and he turns to her. "Um, I think one of them saw us," She says, and Naruto looks up to see a couple of pirates looking down at them, before all three of them jump down onto Naruto's boat.

Before the pirates land, Hylla waves her hand and all three of them visibly dampen in spirit. That brief window of hesitation is all that he needs.

"You were not invited," Naruto says as he punches one straight in the mouth. They skip on the water like a rock, moving farther into the distance.

Reyna stabs the other one, and the other one drops his weapon as if realizing what he just got himself into. Naruto backhands the guy, and he is launched through the hull.

Then lightning, actual lighting, crashes down onto the Greek ship. Blue and purple lightning.

Pure shock and confusion and a bit of recognition flows through him, and he turns to the Greek boat. The sensation of looking at the lightning, is like looking at a flashlight dead on without blinking. When he looks away, he has black spots in his vision.

What the hell is going on? He wonders as he looks up. The sky is clear.

To add to the confusion, the ship isn't destroyed by the blast of lightning from a cloudless sky. It's almost siphoned to a thing. To a person.

It clicks. Bellona's comment about his friends. The girl's voice, and the lightning.

For a second, Naruto thinks, No way, but then he meets eyes with Jason. Jason who just blasted himself with lightning so he can aim it towards the pirate ship. And recognizes the female voice who shouted in surprise as Clarisse.

No way, he thinks again.

Suddenly, he's hit with an idea. Naruto almost gasps, and turns to Hylla and Reyna very quickly, which makes them both jump. "What is it?" Reyna asks.

Naruto hands her the paddles. "This boat will take you anywhere you desire. At least, that's how I think it works," Naruto says, "Regardless, it'll take you to land. Bellona will decree it."

"Us?" Hylla asks, leaning forward. "How will you–?"

"Don't worry about me," Naruto responds. Another cannonball crashes into the ship with his friends. Jason is still aiming that bolt.

"You saved our lives. The least we can do is worry about you."

Naruto is touched. Truly. He hides that behind a smile.

"I'll be fine. I'm going to hitch a ride on that ship over there. No, before you ask, I can't come with you. I still have things I want to do in this part of the ocean. Someone I still need to find."

Reyna raises an unimpressed brow at him. "You mean the ship getting decimated by cannonballs?"

"I'll be fine," Naruto stresses.

Reyna looks at the Greek ship again. "If you're sure…"

"I am."

Reyna and Hylla nod to each other. Then nod to him. Very like their mother.

Hylla grabs his hand before he can run off. "Thank you," she says sincerely.

Naruto smiles again. "Don't mention it."

Then Naruto gets off the ship and starts running to the ship with his friends. His chakra responds to his desire, and he bounds forward.

Jason holds off shooting the lightning bolt till Naruto is out of range of the boat, and coincidentally when Reyna and Hylla are far enough as well. Then fires it.

The pirate ship doesn't stand a chance.

Naruto watches it streak forward. It lights up his face, and he can almost feel the buzz in the back of his throat. Then it goes straight through the ship, like a spear from heaven.

The smell of wood burning permeates in the air, as the pirate ship starts folding and sinking. Naruto almost feels bad for them. Almost.

"Nice shot," he says to Jason as greeting when he boards.

Jason doesn't look particularly happy to see him. "What are you doing all the way here?" Jason asks. "I thought you were at my camp."

Clarisse is on the other side of the boat. She's looking at the pirates, waiting till there is no chance of an attack back. When she turns, her eyebrows rise into her hair at his presence.

"Naruto?" She asks, eyes wide. "What are— How the hell are you here? When did you get on the ship?!"

"Sup' Clarisse," Naruto says, then turns back to Jason. "Why am I here? Percy is somewhere around here. If those guys were telling the truth he's looking for a… faun?"

"A faun is the Roman name for a satyr," Jason explains.

"Oh," Naruto says. He really only knows three satyrs. Grover, Hedge and that one who'd mentioned the L.A quest in the first place. And only one of them does Percy know. And he just happens to be the demigod's best friend.

Clarisse shakes off her shock, and turns to Jason. "'They're really unlikely to send a probatio on a quest,'" she mocks. "Annabeth was right. Percy and Grover are here."

Jason doesn't say anything to her, and walks past him to reach one of the paddles. "Pick some wax in the back and stuff your ears before we reach the sirens." He waves his hand and the wind ushers the other paddles to move as well.

Naruto is about to ask what a siren is and why the hell he'd stuff his ears with wax, when Jason plugs his ears like a moody teen in the middle of a lecture.

Naruto can't help but feel a vibe. Like Jason is grumpy. He turns to Clarisse, looking for answers, but she raises a brow at him and scoffs. "If you don't know why he's mad at you then you're an idiot."

"He's mad at me?"

Clarisse sighs.