The Last Shinto Kami
Chapter Eleven: Deepening Bonds
Naruto hopped from bough to bough, allowing fresh air to crash against his smiling face. Being out in the wild like this, where he could jump across the trees, was what he lived for. Feeling the spring air and tasting the sunlight, the golden-eyed sun deity smiled from ear to ear. He felt free. Free from the responsibility of godhood and all the troubles that plagued humanity. Part of him wanted to keep this peace to himself, but Naruto knew that eventually, he needed to return to the world outside this forest.
'Stop thinking about the future. Stay in the moment, Naruto. Enjoy the here and now before it disappears forever. This forest is beautiful, savor that beauty.' What he loved most was the harmony of it all- coexistence at its simplest, most pure form. Everything from the fiercest predator to the most inconspicuous single-cell organism had a pivotal job. And these assorted roles meshed to create a thriving, healthy forest. It was life at its finest.
Naruto smiled with a knowing glint tucked away in his glimmering gold eyes.
And a silver arrow flew toward him with a sonic twang.
As effortlessly as lifting his hand, Naruto snagged the soaring arrow out of the air before its glinting silver tip found his eye. Sparing the arrow a glance, the mostly blonde man chuckled as he twirled the projectile around his fingers. He loved the chances he had to mess with the headstrong Greek huntress. "You caught me pretty quick this time around, Tsuki-chan. I was sure I could hide for another five minutes."
The huntress maiden joined Naruto, but not without an annoyed huff directed at the blonde a simple jump away. He was so annoying with his stable of silly names. For better or worse, Artemis did have some of her father's temper in her. "How many times must I demand that you cease calling me by that blasted name?"
Naruto held his chin with a showy hum. After he spent a moment thinking, he grinned a cheeky cheshire smile. "I lost count over the last few decades. Honestly, I don't think your insistence is working out!" Naruto's grin grew by leaps and bounds when he saw Artemis reach behind her with a threatening glower.
The Shinto kami took his Greek counterpart's threat with a grain of salt. It wasn't a new promise of harm, but seeing how Artemis failed to follow up any of her proclamations with an actual attempt, he figured he was safe from becoming the goddess' pin cushion. What's a good-natured threat or two between friends?
"Perhaps an arrow in your skull would help jog your errant memory, Naruto." Steely determination glimmered vividly in the redhead's moonlit eyes, a hardy showcase of her determination to test her practical solution. It wouldn't be easy, but Artemis loved a good challenge. They kept her skills sharp.
Far from convinced, Naruto met her predatory glare with a mellowed look of peaceful joy. "You wouldn't do that to me. You love me too much for something like that, Tsuki-chan. Despite how many times you deny our unique friendship~!"
Artemis visibly deflated in on herself, forfeiting her false front of fury to massage the bridge of her nose. She might have mumbled her statement, but Naruto heard her plenty fine. "You're too much like my idiot brother for me to even consider thinking your presence is enjoyable." Her tone was one of someone who dealt with a massive amount of suffering through annoyance.
Looking visibly affronted by her comment, Naruto bristled and pointed the arrow back at Artemis with an accusatory glare hidden in his glowing golden eyes. "You take that back! Your family will sleep with anything that has a pulse! I most certainly do not!"
The sad reality was that the virgin huntress had no choice but to agree with Naruto. Her godly family was free with their sexual tendencies. And that was putting it tastefully. "Hmh, you have a point. I hate when you're right. That means something has gone wrong. Terribly wrong."
"You hate me being right because it means you were wrong! Which happens a lot when it comes to me and you." Naruto saw what came next before it happened. That's why he was already stepping off the tree and plummeting to the forest floor, laughing his whole way down.
"Damn you! Get back here!" The huntress took off hot on Naruto's trail. Despite lagging behind for a split second, Naruto was nowhere in sight when Artemis' feet touched the ground. Predatory silver eyes scanned the area with frightening intensity before she correctly deduced Naruto was in her shadow.
But by spinning around, Artemis opened herself up to having her forehead prodded by her grinning counterpart. "Get back where? How about you catch me first? Try to keep up, huntress!" And with that, he was gone with a cackle, leaving only a light fluttering wind behind.
"I love when the prey runs..." An air of excitement wrapped around Artemis like a cloak as she reached for the arrow Naruto left in the dirt. "Makes catching them all the more satisfying." Gone on the end of a silver streak, Artemis went on the hunt. Together, the two speeding presences began a high-stakes game of cat and mouse.
Dueling streaks of gold and silver powered through the forest. Sometimes, the golden blur overtook the silver. Other times, the silver streak had the lead. The only beings privileged to this show were the animals of the forest, who got pulled to the feeling emanated by the wilderness maiden and the harmonious sun.
Caught in between the two competitive deities happened to be an unlucky tree, which absorbed a well-grouped bunch of three arrows from the huntress' weapon of choice, reverberating from the impact and sending leaves fluttering to the ground.
Their competitive warpath blasted across a lake, causing the serene blue surface to rupture upward with a dull roar. Hundreds of gallons of water crashed down seconds later. The sudden and violent explosion of water sent a curious group of dryads back into their homes before they got soaked through their leaf-made dresses.
Using a break in their grappling to her advantage, Artemis slipped back into the forest. She took her chance, falling on Naruto from above with her bow dropping like a club. But when it made contact with Naruto's head, he burst into a cloud of smoke. Before she could clear it from her eyes, Artemis had her legs swept out from under and hit the ground with a grunt. Blurry eyes opened to see the shape of a hand. "I hate your clones."
"The gloves came off when that first arrow took flight." Mutual understanding flowed between the two gods, and their hands locked, allowing Naruto to hoist Artemis back to her feet. With Artemis back on her feet, Naruto grinned. "You've been getting a lot faster." Although his tone had a bit of levity in it, his praise was honest.
Artemis smirked at the admission sent her way. To hear her efforts be acknowledged played at the pride all gods possessed inherently, herself included. Maybe it meant a little more coming from her strange friend, but she'd keep that to herself. "I can't catch my prey if I stay the same." The message was that Naruto was her target.
Naruto was plenty pleased to hear Artemis making strides to go further. Advancement wasn't something every god or goddess had the drive for. Complacency was shockingly common among the divine. "Keep at it, and who knows? You might catch me one of these times, but I think it's time you get back to the hunters. We've been playing for hours at this point."
"Have you forgotten what time of year it is?" Naruto's only reply, if it could be called that, was a blank stare that showed no comprehension. It nearly made Artemis slap a palm to her face and groan. "It's the season where my hunters break into teams and go off on hunts without my supervision."
Released from his fog of confusion, Naruto snapped his fingers with a grin on his lips. "Oh yeah! That's right! Last time you were so worried for your newest hunters, you had gray hairs for five months! That was priceless! Oof-!" His humor earned Naruto a gut punch that doubled him over. Still breathing with a wheeze, Naruto had a little left in the tank. "H-Hah! Yup. I'll let you relax then, Tsuki-chan. You d-deserve it."
"Will you join me on my hunt?" Naruto froze in place after hearing Artemis' request. It wasn't meekly stated or said with hesitation. What shocked him was the fact she extended the invitation in the first place. "Pick up your jaw, fool! If I can't trust you after a century, then there are very few I can trust."
Shaking away his surprise, instead of serving a teasing barb at his redheaded friend, Naruto left her with a golden smile that exuded warmth. "It'd be a genuine honor. What are we hunting and where?" There was a time for jokes and this was not one of them. He knew how highly Artemis held her sacred hunts, and treating them with any less honor would be an insult Naruto had no plans of committing.
"I have heard whispers about an indestructible beast roaming the wilds of Asia Minor. I plan on crossing the Aegean to see if this boar lives up to its reputation." The potential of this hunt had the divine archer's ichor at a boil, so was the strength of her teeming excitement. Imagining such a beast had her fingers trembling with excitement.
"An impervious pig?" Naruto raised his brow in wonder. It sounded like something divine, or worse, a dangerous monster capable of ruining many innocent lives. "You have it tracked then? We should take care of this as fast as possible."
Artemis shook her head, wobbling her wavy wall of red hair into a slow, swaying motion. "No, I wish to hunt it down methodically, like a true hunter should." Using her godly powers for such a task would cheapen the hunt as a whole.
"Sounds good to me. I'll follow your lead."
That Night (Aegean Coast)
Two powerful beings gathered around a modest campfire, sounded like the start of a bad joke, but it's where Naruto and Artemis found themselves. The flame's meager orange glow alighted them on an otherwise starless night. It was a peaceful flow, the crackles of the fire mixed with the gentle swell of the sea's tide, rolling on a hundred feet below.
But even their time of peace wasn't wasted being idle. Naruto sat on his knees with both hands pressed together in prayer in front of his grandfather's prized weapon, which Naruto buried blade deep in the soil. Likewise, Artemis had her favorite bow out for an overdue polishing of its sacred, wooden body. Usually, cleaning her weapon provided a peace of mind, but not this time. By the look on her face, the moon goddess seemed to be weighing something mentally before she judged it acceptable to bring it up with Naruto. "Can you share what it was like for you growing up?" Her question broke the ambiance surrounding the pair.
One golden pool peered around Amenonuhoko and through the fire separating them. Naruto stayed that way for a breath before he eased into a comfortable position with his legs stretched out. A question for a question wasn't considered the best form of manners, but this time it was necessary. "How much do you know about my people's pantheon?"
Artemis placed her bow on her thighs and leveled her glowing eyes on Naruto's stern front. Silver beams of moonlight spiraled through the dark sky, pulled toward Artemis' divine presence in the world. "I know the Shinto once existed in this plane, but not much else. Father forbids us from speaking openly about the other pantheons, so most of us let them fade from our memories."
Naruto swallowed the bitter smile that threatened his face because of Artemis' unintentionally painful choice of words. "Long ago, Lady Chaos came to my ancestors with an offer. She offered them a new realm... one untouched by other gods, a fresh start with no threat of divine war on the horizon. It was a dream for many. But sadly, dreams don't last forever."
"The mortals living in this new realm were like demigods multiplied ten times over. They possessed an internal source of power called Chakra. Chakra allowed them to manipulate the elements, cast illusions, and ascend the limitations of mortal strength. They called themselves shinobi, a people who made the word mercenary and formed into a race over occupation." Naruto knew these devout warriors through relayed information, but his view on shinobi wasn't positive. Death and destruction seemed like the rule and not the exception in the Realm of Elements, and Naruto hated it.
Naruto's sudden revelation about a race of enhanced warriors gave Artemis reason to pause. "These men and women... are they..."
"No, none of these shinobi, fearsome as they are, have the power to reliably puncture, let alone cross the boundaries of separated realms. You can rest easy on that." And he couldn't be more thankful that was the case. The idea of ninja-branded mass destruction running around unchecked felt like his worst nightmare. "But I didn't mention them to spread concern. I brought them up because their power filled shinobi with pride, arrogance, and ambition."
"The typical pursuits of men..." Artemis broke her silence with a twinge of derisiveness. Different realms, but corruption knew no such boundary. It was a disappointing but expected truth.
"No, it's not only males. Men and women were both warriors in my family's realm. Theirs was a society built on merit. Unfortunately, this helped create a belief in their unique gifts over faith. The process was slow, but over thousands of years, the damage became irreversible. Our most influential gods and goddesses held on longer than the others, but the end came for them all the same." Naruto distracted himself from his sadness with the swirling flames of the camp's fire.
Artemis found herself victim to the sadness swelling from within her soul. If not for Naruto, her mother wouldn't have- the goddess shook it off and offered a kind word to try and encourage Naruto. "Your mother must have possessed an incredible will."
"My mother passed away shortly after my birth. What I know of her story is secondhand information given by my guardian. But yeah, she was a strong woman who understood the importance of harmony between all things. It's a lesson I will spend my life trying to understand." Naruto decided to turn away from talking about his mother. The awkwardness of sympathy turning into pity wasn't something he was sure he'd handle well. Nope. Not a bit. Not a chance.
Artemis' furrowed brow deepened against her forehead, showing how her curiosity was piqued. "Can you elaborate? I'm afraid I don't understand your meaning." That's not to say she didn't want to understand her fellow divine being.
Naruto plucked a single strand of grass out of the soil. He held it aloft before dropping it. The mostly blonde man watched the wind send the swirling blade of green into the flames, turning its verdant green into a charred black gnarl. "Take the chief three deities, for example. Hades, Poseidon, and Zeus are three men synonymous with stories of destruction, death, and fear. The people shake in fear at the mere mention of their names."
She couldn't stop the flash of emotion Naruto's words triggered, manifesting in a pair of flickering silver eyes. True or not, Zeus was still her father, whom she loved dearly. It's precisely why her cordial reply came out strained with her repressed feelings. "Not all of us are like the stories!"
"I agree with you, and not all of my pantheon's gods were beacons of benevolence. I bring those three up because they are your Big Three. For better or worse." Naruto paused and let his carefully selected words take some of Artemis' edge off. "Compared to my mother or uncle Susanoo, who promoted unison and protected mortals from threats beyond them, I see a vast chasm in my culture and yours in our views on duty to our home."
Artemis watched Naruto from over the fire, looking at him but not truly seeing him. Her response was almost as quiet as sizzling kindling. "You remind me a lot of Selene." A ghostly apparition of her mentor flickered into existence over Naruto's shoulder, making the redhead smile. This wasn't the first time Artemis drew a comparison between the two different people. However, it was the first time she shared it with Naruto.
"I haven't had the pleasure of meeting Selene. Is being like them a good thing or a bad one?" Naruto had his guess based on Artemis' tone, but he was better off avoiding blind assumptions. It was better to know where he stood without the exaggeration of flowerly prose.
Delayed by memories recent and old, the moon archer's nod came out sluggishly. Artemis' fond expression came alongside a soft smile on her fair face. "Selene is the Titaness who stewarded the moon when the Titans held power and is one of the few Titans to support the Olympian's rebellion. She's teaching me about the intricacies of the moon's responsibility to nature." Unlike countless others, Selene focused on her duties outside of simple monster-slaying. Yes, Artemis enjoyed her hunts, but she was more than a simple exterminator.
What began as bubbling respect became outright verbal praise courtesy of the Omikami. Perhaps one day he could meet the woman himself. Until then, he'd hold Artemis's words to heart. "She sounds like a smart woman. We need more minds like hers out there thinking about the bigger picture. The planet would be a better place."
Naruto's earnest response brought a rarely seen joking gleam into Artemis' silver soul pools. "You're incorrect as usual, Naruto. Women are always right with smart advice. It's men who need to listen better." Her joke earned the goddess a joyous laugh from Naruto. "If you'll excuse me, I have the moon's orbit to lead through the night. I shall rejoin you when the sun rises in the morning."
Sending Artemis off with a wave, Naruto took to his solitude. He fell back into the grass with both hands behind his head. Two golden eyes looked into the tapestry of stars strobing against the dark fabric of the sky. 'I should make another visit to Kaa-san's homelands. If beasts like Yamata no Orochi are lurking there, who knows what else might be happening? I'll visit after this hunt.' Until then, he laid back and watched the moon illuminate the night sky with its brilliance, enjoying his peaceful night.
Two baleful red beads looked over a forested plain, searching for threats and finding nothing. The beast connected to those bloodied eyes lowered its head with a booming snort. The bestial boar weighed a ton with a whip-like tail punctuated by a plume of needle-sharp hairs. But everything in its arsenal paled to the pair of tusks coming out of its lower jaw. Both those sharp protrusions were three feet long with a hook-like curve near their base. Pale white and gleaming, deadly in the sun's light.
The boar looked terribly out of place compared to the world around it, but that didn't diminish how visually impressive the beast stood. So was the pull of its presence that Naruto felt obligated to pay the creature its due respect. "I expected to find an impressive beast, but this is more than I imagined. If this beast weren't causing havoc, I'd be inclined to leave it be."
The hunter had a different mind entirely. Artemis had her deciphering gaze already working hard, doing what was natural for them, picking apart potential weak points in her prey. Here it was... the final moment of adrenaline-filled angst before she fell upon her prey. She loved it. She lived for it. "The danger of a beast makes the hunt all the more worthy."
"If we hit it and run circles around it from two sides, we should be able to wear the pig down without risking a nasty surprise. Thoughts?" Usually, Naruto was all for a good fight, but he wasn't so careless as to fight with the full extent of his flames in a highly flammable forest. The last thing he wanted was to turn this place to ash because he got too excited. It was best he try and play it smart.
Artemis mulled over a response long enough for her and Naruto to watch a second boar stomp through the underbrush. The unaccounted-for addition of another pig forced Artemis to offer an amended plan. "We should separate them. Divide and conquer."
"One a piece works for me. I will go in first and separate the two. Use the surprise from my entrance to strike at the enemy." The solar-lunar combination shared a nod before Naruto silently leaped through the forest, building momentum with each bouncing spring that took him forward into the canopy of green foliage that swallowed the blonde's presence easily.
'I have to thank Artemis. Our games of tag have my agility and reflexes razor sharp.' His thoughts came with a smile as leaves and tree branches alike passed him by until the light of day became more prevalent as the tree leaves thinned out. Finally at the forest's threshold, Naruto burst from the tree line with his foot leading the charge. His sole slammed into the leftmost beast's tusk with a crunch before the golden sun god's dynamic entry sent god and beast ripping deeper through the wilds.
Their path culminated with a thrashing beast lying on its flank in a bank of wet brown mud while Naruto rose from the waist-deep shallows of the river. Water droplets ran down the determined lines of his face. His clothes were heavy from the river's water, but Naruto's sharp gaze stayed glued to the beast. It didn't show on his face, and yet, Naruto was baffled to find the boar unharmed apart from a slight crack in the base of its tusk.
Naruto felt the weight of expectation coming from the treasured spear on his back. However, Naruto resisted the temptation. He refused to use his grandfather's almighty spear to solve all his problems. He'd rely on the skills he earned through the years of training. A mixing of light and fire coated the blonde's hands, arming him with celestial white flames. "Alright, big guy. Let's see how much punishment that big body can take!"
SHHHRRRIIEEEKK!
Boar and god charged straight at each other, destined to clash until the final moment when Naruto diverted his path. He planted his foot on the creature's large skull, using the beast's attempt at goring him to springboard himself into the air. The beast countered by throwing a barrage of sharp hair needles at Naruto, which forced the blonde to burn the projectiles to ash before they turned him into a pincushion.
A futile attack for damage but good enough to slow Naruto, the pig had the time it needed to line itself up with where Naruto would land. A clone burst into existence and shoved the original through the air. The additional pair of hands allowed Naruto to land on the swine's arch-shaped spine like the foul beast was a prized mount. "HYAH!" Naruto's flames burned bright as he slammed his clamped hands down on the pig's head- once, twice, thrice, and so on.
In failing to take down the beast, Naruto needed to throw himself off the pig's back as it went into a roll. God or not, he didn't have any plans on being crushed under two tons of monster meat.
Shaking the dirt out of its brown coat, the bestial boar viewed his godly foe rising and instinctually rushed to gore the bright blonde. Its tusk hit home, spearing the shocked sun right through his gut. Victory turned into pain when Naruto's body exploded into a cloud of burning ash that swallowed the screeching swine in a bloom of murky black.
The beast broke through its ash cage only to be met by Naruto and his next strike. His weapon of choice? A self-contained vortex of churning flames. "Rasengan!" Driving the beast down into the Earth, the force released from Naruto's attack created an explosion of light. When it faded, Naruto was alarmed to see a ball-shaped indentation but no other damage on his foe.
"Fuck!" Naruto left the stunned beast behind. He raced toward his lunar counterpart to see if her luck was any better. When he landed on the scene, the blonde found a scowling moon goddess facing down a boar stuck with many an arrow. But somehow bloodless? "Looks like you're having as much luck as I am."
"I have done everything short of going into my divine form. The beast seems impervious to all forms of damage." At the very least, Naruto's appearance caused the neigh indestructible beast to freeze in place wearily. "It is annoying, I must admit."
With the return of the second monster swine, the full complement of characters returned to the battlefield. Artemis needed but a second to pick out the crack of damage Naruto left on the pig's tusk. "What's that? How'd you manage to pull that off?"
Naruto refrained from shrugging at her question. He didn't want to leave his guard down for a second. That was a bad habit he tried to avoid. Aether drilled the importance of it into his head the hard way during their training. "That damage is literally from my first attack. Nothing else did anything but tick the thing off."
"What differentiated that strike from your other attacks?" Artemis answered her question a breath later, showing her inquiry was more rhetorical than genuine. "Your first attack was the only one you scored when the two creatures were in the same vicinity."
"You're telling me we can't hurt these things if they're apart?" Once the momentary disbelief passed and Naruto thought about it, Artemis' take made a lot of sense. The proof was looking them in the face in the form of two pissed-off pigs.
"Do you have any better ideas?" The curtness of her reply showed how little Artemis joked when she was on the hunt.
"No! I'm ready to roll. Need a better angle?" Upon receiving Artemis' consent, he put his hands down and motioned for the goddess to step on his basketed hands. With a mighty shove up, he threw her high into the sky, drawing the attention of their shared enemies.
Naruto dashed forward, taking advantage of the pigs looking into the sky at the suddenly airborne Artemis. His momentum packed an extra level of force into his naturally powerful punches, and this time, the sun god felt their snouts shift when his knuckles crashed into the swine. And based on their shrieks, the two boars finally felt the pain.
Their agony only worsened when Artemis struck from above. Three arrows stabbed their way into the backs of both beasts. It didn't kill them, but their thickened blood leaked from their wounds while the divinity of her arrowheads seeped into their bodies, making them sway in place, vulnerable for the first time.
Artemis continued her practiced assault by dropping to the ground. Her bowstring bent back and released with an audible TWANG! An arrow four times longer than her typical arrows, pierced through the left flank of the nearest beast and continued through to the second pig. Chained together, the pigs struggled as long tendrils of gooey vineage came out of the ground and locked them in place.
Naruto saw his chance and didn't hesitate. He formed a wind blade around his hand, and with a swift stroke, the golden-eyed god beheaded the beast on the right, dropping its blood-spewing head to the ground with a wet THUMP in front of its still-twitching body. By comparison, Artemis' kill was much more clean. A single arrow through her prey's brain is all it took to drop her target.
He used the momentary break to assess the damage. He had to sigh as he put his hand against his shoulder and rolled his strained joint. Hitting those pigs felt like punching a mountain. Looking over at Artemis from the corner of his eye, Naruto smiled cheerfully. "Looks like my first real hunt was more than we bargained for. If they're all like this, I would have been in your shadow much sooner, Tsuki-chan."
Artemis snorted at his joking tone and stowed her bow along the length of her back. Thoughts plagued with the troubles of what these beasts represented, Artemis had some thoughts to share. "The kind of magic put on these creatures... is this on purpose or an unforeseen mutation?"
"In our world, it can be tough to say what's accidental and what is on purpose." That was the best he felt he could do, given that Naruto didn't have the answers Artemis sought. Whether or not it comforted her, Naruto couldn't say, but it was honest.
The blunt dose of honesty got a frown from the goddess but not necessarily a disagreement. "Regardless, I plan on tracking down their den. I need to find anything I can about this phenomenon. Are you coming with me?"
"I appreciate the offer, but I have to decline. There are some things I want to do in my mother's ancestral home." Under normal circumstances, Naruto was all for spending time with his friend. The back-and-forth he and Artemis shared was an endless source of entertainment for him.
"What are you plotting?" Naruto merely smiled and waved before he vanished with a golden flash. His sudden departure drew a jealous scowl from the one he left behind. Artemis would have done almost anything to go to the Far East and experience their world for herself, but unfortunately, Zeus forbade Greek intrusions that far from their homeland.
"Good luck out there, Tsuki-chan. Let's do this again soon!" The cheerfulness of her sunny friend lingered in the air long after he left, making Artemis hide a smile. Though she wasn't the biggest fan of the nickname, the huntress respected Naruto's dedication to using it, even if she protested it publically.
'That idiot...'
END
Writer's Note I: Hello everyone! Back again with another chapter. More Naruto and Artemis relationship build. The action was never the real focus of this chapter. Remember this, does Artemis hunt with other gods? Not really. The act of hunting is sacred to her and taking Naruto on one is a rather large step on her part. But in the next chapter, we have a fight and focus on Naruto's Shinto heritage.
Like always, please drop a review. Go and say what you think or what you're hoping for. I read all reviews and respond to everyone with their inboxes open to private messages! See you all soon!