No matter where in Konoha you are, no matter if you're in a fully lit room with only one window— if it is nighttime, you can always see the stars. You can look at your wife's eyes as she gazes at the sky in wonder, and see those celestial beings up there through her iris.
The leaves are green enough. The wooden log he's leaning on is exactly where on the training ground it's supposed to be. The grass moves how the wind dictates.
But, it's nighttime. And he cannot see the stars
Naruto blinks. Nostalgia, memories, emotions of a time ago, pour into his chest from his nostrils. Like cold water, it flows through his lungs.
Naruto wants to put his hands behind his head, gaze up at the stars, and breathe.
No.
He screws his eyes shut, and tries to remember that there are no stars above him.
He opens his eyes. Training ground seven. The academy is visible. The noise of adults bustling and kids chortling on the Konoha streets isn't too far away. There is the faint smell of sweat and lingering smoke.
Sakura is off to the side. She's looking at him at an angle. She's higher, and he's lower. Her face is squeezed into concern. Her hair is the right shade of cherry blossom. Her eyes are the right amount of naive.
Sasuke is behind her. His foot is outstretched, and he's also upright while Naruto is on the ground. His smile is victorious, teasing, hateful- because Sasuke is always just that tiny bit hateful, and visibly worn. Sasuke would never admit it though.
Kakashi is somewhere in the back, reading some sappy romantic comedy, with his one uncovered eye in the motion of flicking up to them.
Naruto tries to move towards them, but he can't. It's like he's captured in a picture, yet he feels the burn of muscles as he moves, the strain on his fingers as he reaches.
He's moving. But he's never reaching. At the horizon, but right by his fingernails. Reaching for a dream, but never in it.
The image in front of him is almost true enough that he can taste it. He can almost feel where Sasuke had kicked him, and on his fist where he'd made contact with Sasuke's gut at least ten times.
Almost. Almost true enough.
This is not Konoha. Those are not his friends. Tiresias had promised with hearty chuckle that he would never see it again.
(Why does that matter? Naruto doesnotdoesnotdoesnot believe in fate)
Naruto breathes in water. His chest burns. Pain. Pain gives clarity.
It's not enough. He needs to feel them, touch them, be with them. He'll be satiated then. This is not enough.
Naruto meets Sasuke's eyes.
How was he supposed to do it again?
Ah.
Raise two fingers. Flair your chakra. Whisper your desire to be released.
The illusion melts away too easily. It turns to a liquid the same consistency as paint, and sinks below its clear canvas. A canvas a shade of teal, mostly tasteless but perhaps some salt, and choking on his breath.
Water. The ocean.
His limbs snap back to his mind's hold. His body stops flailing around, and automatically switches to keeping him afloat. Naruto knows it hasn't been egregiously long since he still has some oxygen left in his tank. He looks up, trying to find the flickers of the moonlight to tell him how far he is from the surface.
It's pitch dark above him. That's an answer in itself.
He tries to swim up, but then he's made aware of the tight hold around him. He's being held to the person's chest by ridiculously strong arms that are bigger than Naruto's head.
Shit.
He resists for about fifteen seconds. He starts faltering. His lungs start burning, his fingers start going numb, and his struggle gets more and more futile, and weak.
The person holding is trying to paddle towards a direction, but something is holding onto him, keeping him moving slower than a snail. He can't tell if they're going up, down, left or right. The edges of his vision are darkening.
Naruto's hand finds its way to his pouch. Almost mindlessly, he grabs one of the kunai. Doesn't matter Celestial Bronze or regular, it will still give him a distraction even if ineffective.
He's about to stab somewhere, just… somewhere, when the voice yells out, batting away something. "Bad mermaid!"
And the voice, the person holding him- It's Tyson.
The cyclops is trying to swim up but the sirens are keeping him from doing so. Naruto takes a moment off from dying to think about how stupid he is, and how obvious that was.
He thrashes against Tyson's arm once again. The cyclops must think he's still trying to drown himself, still stuck under the siren's song.
The being swatted away hisses, and that gives Naruto an idea.
He pulls the unsheathed kunai forward. It's slow. Slower than any attack Naruto has performed since he was eight. But the water, exhaustion, well, it doesn't make it easy.
The siren is not focusing on him at all, and he stabs her in her chest. She breaks out of her siren song to wail loudly.
The sirens latching onto Tyson's legs don't stop singing, but at least it's not directly in Naruto's ear.
If they weren't using it as a medium for illusion, Naruto could see it being used for distraction, because holy fuck. The siren song sounds like an ambulance if you removed the switching pitches and kept it on one forever and without break. That's what was playing right in his ear.
Tyson's grip goes loose and Naruto ducks out of the embrace.
"You're back?" Tyson asks, voice clear in his father's domain.
Naruto tries to talk but because he's underwater he makes bubbles and unintelligible noises. He just nods, thanking the gods this isn't Percy because he would never hear the end of it.
Tyson looks to his other side. The light is scarce here at the bottom of the ocean, but Naruto presumes that the two figures held tight against him are Clarisse and Jason.
Tyson lets go of them. Perhaps thinking that the siren song is now not working or something. No, it is. And Clarisse and Jason start trying to swim down. Naruto grabs Jason like he's a frisbee out of the air. Tyson does the same to Clarisse.
When Naruto makes contact with Jason, his vision briefly flits over to an illusion.
Jason's illusion; Jason's wish, and dream, and hope is of a bright day. It's his friend in what he assumes is Camp Jupiter by the purple and the armor strapped onto some of the people passing by. Jason is sitting— laughing, with a girl a bit older than Naruto with the same blue electrifying eyes as Jason, that shake with the power of the king of the gods. But where Jason has shining blonde hair, Thalia, he presumes, has jet black hair.
The vision vanishes. Jason tries to twist his hand out of Naruto's grasp, crying, begging, weeping at him to let him go.
Naruto looks back at Clarisse doing the same. He doesn't like it. He doesn't like seeing them so vulnerable, when they wouldn't want him to. If he had the time down here, he would make the sirens pay for making his friends experience it, but he is kind of dying, and Jason with his red face doesn't look that far off either.
That pain gives him clarity. The burn gives him clarity. The gushing emotions give him clarity. Naruto pulls Jason in one more time, and headbutts the centurion of rome. Pain gives Jason clarity.
Jason slumps in his arms. Naruto checks to see if he's unconscious, but he's not; his eyes are open in fact. However, Jason doesn't look… there. His gaze remains unfocused, and the tears leaking out from the side of his eyes seem completely out of his control.
Naruto waves his hand at Tyson to show him what he just did.
Tyson hesitates. Gods, bless his soul. If Clarisse had treated him like that, Naruto would be more than happy to headbutt the bullshit out of her.
However, a bleeding heart is admirable, but not particularly helpful. Naruto makes a lot of bubble noises, trying to express the urgency.
Tyson looks back at Clarisse, raises his hands, and gives a strong flick to her forehead.
Clarisse also goes slack like Jason. Naruto blinks, looking down at his limp friend with a bloody nose. He almost feels bad for Jason, because Naruto had done him dirty with a whole headbutt.
Tyson grabs him. Naruto wants to react to this, but it's really getting to him now. He doubts one could differentiate his punches from a mortal child's.
Tyson straps Clarisse closer to his side, and secures Naruto, who is trying really hard to make sure Jason is held tight, closer to him.
They shoot up against all laws of physics (Magic cares little for science) and dive out of the water.
Naruto desperately takes in the open air. Immediately, the burn in his chest dulls. His fingers stop feeling numb, and death stops reaching for the scruff of his jacket.
Tyson tries to cushion the blow of them landing onto the ship, but it still hurts like hell on his ribs.
He, Clarisse, and Jason spend the next few minutes just coughing. Coughing out the water, and bile, and the downpour of fucking feelings.
Jason turns to them, still gasping for breath. When he sees Tyson, a gasp cuts through his harsh breathing. "Tyson, what happened to you?" He says, face green.
Huh?
Naruto turns to Tyson. The cyclops makes no move to hide his scars. Multiple scratches run jaggedly around his face. Not in any particular order, and barely the same length. Tyson's face is mostly blood and a few specks of golden dust.
Naruto steps back, eyes wide. Clarisse's mouth is just a bit unhinged.
Tyson smiles. "The wailing girls had long nails."
Which is correct. They did, and that's exactly why it can't be true. They weren't the causes of the scratches to his face. Maybe the ones on his legs, and chest, but very much not the ones on the face.
The wounds are too shallow, too imprecise for something scratched onto him by basically daggers. No, it did not come from claws. It came from something shorter, clipped, not straight.
And Clarisse, Jason, Naruto, have flesh under their fingernails.
Jason tells him that the sirens were their last hurdle before Polyphemus' Island, and that they're approaching.
That's the last thing anyone says. Only the sound of the winds ushering the paddles, Clarisse sharpening her spear, Tyson making his shield, and Naruto's thoughts disturb the silence.
They're by the island a bit sooner than Naruto wants. He wishes he could have a second to… process, but it's not the reality of the situation.
No, he decides. It's been too long since he's seen those sharingan.
They dock the ship on the beach. The old wood creaks harshly, which briefly gets Naruto in a reverie of wondering how the boat that took him from Alaska, and the two girls that are on it are doing right now.
The beach goes for a few steps in front of them. Then a yard before the first tree, sickly vines have grown and grown and grown so that they encroach on sand. Weird thing is that they're all limp and yellow.
When they enter the forested area, the tall trees swallow the sun. The brief spots between the leaves help, but they're not enough to keep Naruto from stumbling on roots every few steps.
Clarisse steps forward. She bangs her spear on the floor, and it lights up with some fire on the tip. Naruto looks down at his measly kunai. Maybe he should ask Beckendorf to whip him something. He's been trying to get elemental jutsu, unsuccessfully, but what if he instead circumvents the issue.
Eh, it feels wrong, like he's being sacreligious.
Whatever. He puts a footnote on it for when he gets back to camp.
"Hey, Clarisse?" He asks.
"What?" She asks him behind her. "Better not be a stupid question."
How unnecessary. Rude, too.
Naruto rolls his eyes. "It's not," he says, "Where exactly are we heading?"
Clarisse sneers. "Stupid," she says, and Naruto resists the urge to kick her while she's not looking. "We're heading for the fleece."
"Duh," Naruto says, and because he's got to make her feel a little bit stupid, he adds. "But where is it?"
Clarisse tsks, but explains. Naruto almost wants to tell her she's being like Annabeth. "It's no coincidence that Polyphemus' island and the one of the fleece are in the same location. I wonder who he killed to get it. Or more importantly, which demigod was stupid enough to travel to an island like this with it." There's that ADHD. He sometimes forgets Clarisse has that. "Regardless, the big dumb cyclops probably keeps it close to him."
That feels like a dig at Tyson. Naruto almost responds to it, but catches himself. "He lives in a cave, right? We don't know where that is. So no, it isn't a stupid question."
Clarisse looks at him a lot like Sakura and Iruka did sometimes. Like he's a total, and utter idiot. "You didn't see the tip of the cave while we were on the boat?"
Naruto spent most of the trip staring at Tyson's wounds and his bloodied fingers. Clarisse might be bullshitting to get him embarrassed, but he can't know. "It was far away," Naruto says, flushing.
"It would be noticeable. Especially since unlike Jason here your vision isn't dogshit. You were too busy sulking." Jason squints at Clarisse. She smiles back at him. "I mean, you shouldn't be the only one allowed to randomly insult people," she says.
Jason breathes in. Naruto waits for the biting reply, the vitriol charged in the air to come spewing out.
…
…
Naruto blinks. Uh...
Jason goes silent. Naruto nearly loses it. Where's the rage waiting to spring up? Where is the Hercules in his expression? The centurion doesn't look mad but haunted.
Naruto scrunches his face at Jason, also not too pleased he wasn't awarded this kindness, before- (and he's thinking along the lines of how this would have avoided the sirens)- before
Realization.
Oh.
A couple of puzzle pieces to slot in. Jason was truly, and truly afraid with the titans. Naruto hadn't thought about it, but likely it was his first proper battle he almost died in. Jason had grown up at Camp Jupiter, Naruto knows that, but he knows even more that mock battles and training will never prepare you for when the chunin who tricked you to steal an important scroll lobs a huge shuriken at you.
The sirens were that, but add helplessness. Nothing one can do in the moment, if you're not Naruto of course (he's so fucking cool), but die, or hope you are saved.
If he is not worried over his own fragility, he's worried about theirs. Maybe both.
"I'm not going to die. Don't hide your feelings because you think I will, and are scared of regret."
Clarisse looks at him with utter and pure confusion. Jason doesn't even look surprised.
"What if I do?"
"I won't allow you to."
Jason is silent for a bit. He looks at Naruto like he's unsure if he should blush like a schoolgirl or frown at his arrogance.
Silence for a bit. The ground starts inclining upwards. The amount of trees grows slowly, slow enough that Naruto was almost convinced nothing was going on. They're getting closer.
Eventually he looks down. Naruto doesn't know what that means— rejection or acception?- but doesn't say anything more, and just prepares. For what's coming.
The vines to their left, and right, and front and back, are a lot thicker and more sickly then the ones at the edges of the forest. Flowers droop down like they've got weight on them and yet their petals are the size of his body.
They go a bit closer, and the vegetation stops.
The cave is still a bit away, but the tree is there. And it is the tree of the fleece. It is isolated like a king's throne and it is big. Humongous even. Naruto almost says out loud that it's the world's tallest tree, but then remembers Annabeth telling him about the Hyperion tree. Which is like 35 stories. This tree is tall, but not that tall.
And, Ew; he's not supposed to know that. He squirms, deciding that knowledge is for the nerds in Cabin Six.
Naruto takes another look at the tree, and well- have you ever seen a tree suffering withdrawal symptoms?
Past the tree, Naruto notices a bridge. He stretches his neck to peer at it. He notes the chasm below it then, and the other half of the island. He spies the cave beyond it, ignoring Clarisse's gaze.
Past the cave, the ground doesn't decline down steadily like how the ground was inclining as they were coming up. There's only one way out of the island, and it is how they came.
Clarisse steps toward the isolated tree. She squints towards the top of the tree. That's why she's caught off guard.
Naruto sees them in the corner of his vision, rushing forward. He doesn't know how, but he knows allowing them to touch Clarisse is not a good idea.
He yanks her back, and a flock of sheep scampers faster than he can track past the space Clarisse's foot was. Naruto feels really stupid for a second. Sheep is what he was desperately trying to save Clarisse from.
Then the sheep keep going, and meet a little animal— perhaps a squirrel or a rat— that walks onto the path.
The sheep pass where the little animal is, without pause. Naruto fears for it being stampeded, but when the last has passed it's even worse than he thought. The animal is dead, eaten, and there is nothing but bones left behind.
They didn't even pause. Is his vision wrecked like Jason?
Clarisse makes a noise. Well it's not just him, at least.
Naruto looks up at the tree all isolated, and that suddenly makes a bit more sense. Everything close to the fleece gets eaten, probably including any trees that try and encroach. Polyphemus put them there as security.
Unlike what he's used to in this world, the airtight security doesn't wear blue shirts, green or red vests, but white wool stained red with blood. And Naruto thought the harpies at Camp were overkill.
"If we can get to the bridge, then I doubt they will attack us."
"Sure. But problem is that we want the fleece, Jason," Clarisse says.
"Right," Jason says. His gaze flickers to Tyson, then Naruto. "Um, I was thinking… The sirens didn't want to eat Tyson, because he wouldn't taste good, right?"
Naruto caught on even before Jason had even said anything. He raises an eyebrow. "You saying you want to throw Tyson into the lion's den for a chance that they might not eat him. We didn't see the sirens eat squirrels— how do you know that this isn't a special case?"
"Just hear me out," Jason says. "There's that, but also, Tyson is specifically a cyclops. So is Polyphemus. What if they're his pets or something? Then they'd think that Tyson would just be bringing them food."
"What if these guys are the natural protectors of the fleece, not his pets and he just lets them go wild on this side of the island?"
"Polyphemus had sheep, I remember that, but I don't remember the fleece having sheep protectors. That would be kind of weird," he says, "I believe in the original myth it was protected by a dragon." Jason looks around as if to confirm there is no dragon around. Maybe there was. Maybe the sheep ate it.
Like they'll do to Tyson.
Naruto frowns. Then he looks towards the cyclops, and decides that it's not his decision to make. Naruto wouldn't be a person trying to be the voice for him, so he won't do it to Tyson. "What do you want to do, Tyson?" He asks.
The cyclops stands up fully. His eyes are set, and ready. Naruto already knows what he's going to say before he says it.
"I want to help."
Tyson is not attacked. He takes a step. Nothing. Then another, then another. Naruto breathes in. Out. His hand starts falling down from where he was preparing to pull Tyson back.
Then the sheep rush the cyclops.
Naruto doesn't hesitate, reaching out for Tyson. The cyclops unfortunately has moved a bit farther than Naruto can reach before the sheep get to him.
The sheep stop, and start nuzzling to Tyson, like a baby would to their mom if they wanted candy. Naruto lets out a breath he didn't know he was holding.
Jason wipes some sweat off his forehead. Good that the centurion is nervous. If that had gone wrong, then Naruto would have punched Jason so hard in the solar plexus.
Naruto turns to Clarisse who is not even focused on what's going on. She's set with her head locked and her eyes squinting at the tree. "What's wrong?"
"Can't see the fleece," she says.
Jason gets his wits back. "And who was making fun of who for poor eyesight?"
"Then tell me where it is, Jason," Clarisse says, sneering.
Jason goes silent, looking down. "I can't see it either. Maybe it's being hidden or something," Naruto says. It's not exactly reassuring, even to himself. "Tyson. When you're done with the white fleece, can you climb up the tree and look for the golden one?"
Tyson sends a thumbs up, all he can do as another sheep left behind runs into him so fast that he nearly loses balance.
"Now, let's get to the cave. Best case scenario, all three of them are there. Worst case, Percy and Annabeth haven't arrived, and Grover is still alone."
He knows of the Grover situation through Clarisse, who heard it from Jason, who heard it from Annabeth, who dreamed about it or something. He doesn't know what demigod dreams are classified as. Visions? Prophecy? Night terrors?
"No," Clarisse says, "Worst case is that they're all dead. Be realistic."
"Talking to the wrong guy if that's what you want," Naruto says, "They're fine. I have to believe that they are."
Jason tucks his arm under both their shoulders. He flies above the sheep. Then briefly stops right by the tree to check again. All of them squint, but after a few seconds, Jason says that they're too heavy.
Jason suggests he drop them past the bridge, and stay back to continue looking. Naruto says to trust Tyson. Maybe ruffling a few leaves will help.
Jason doesn't look ready to rebut. He looks like it's just about to slip out of his lips, and destroy Naruto's words. But then he snaps his jaw shut. He sighs, and looks up.
He drops them past the bridge, and immediately doubles over, hands on his knees. The centurion's face is as red as when they'd seen the picture of the Piper girl.
"Wow, you're getting used to the flying thing, Jason. That was pretty steady."
"This does not mean I will be flying you everywhere," he wheezes.
Naruto smirks. "Right…"
There is a boisterous laugh from the cave in front of them. The laugh is so loud, so ugly, that it shakes the ground beneath.
"I have caught you now, Nobody! You will suffer!"
After that, the unmistakable voice of Annabeth making a noise of startle comes past the boulder. She sounds terrified. Even worse than that one time she only noticed a spider before it crawled onto her leg.
"No, don't eat her!" Grover yells. "You– you must boil her first. Humans. Mmm. The meat just melts in your mouth when you boil it."
"What the hell, Grover!?"
That's not Annabeth who says that. Naruto feels his mouth splitting open.
"Let's go in," Clarisse says, "You alright to go in with us, Jason?"
Jason nods, trying to keep his head up, and his hands away from his hips. Naruto almost huffs, if he had the time he would get insulted at the insinuation (and direct statement a bit ago) that Naruto is heavy.
He gets close to the cave. Unfortunately the thing is sealed shut. And the boulder for it might be like ten times his height. Maybe twenty.
Even if he could move it, which he likely can't, it would leave him too open. It would take him a while to get a crack between the cave and the boulder, and there would be a lot of noise made. Polyphemus would likely just pick him up, and gobble him like a sour tart.
Clarisse takes a look, and says what he thinks. "It's impossible to breach this."
Naruto looks at Jason. Jason who is not really different from when the titans attacked them back in L.A. Jason who left Clarisse in a situation very similar to this.
Jason grimaces, but doesn't say a plan about leaving them behind. The centurion instead puts his hand underneath his chin, and sighs again like he's forty. Even Clarisse looking at Jason, which— when the hell did Jason become leader?
Jason looks up, still torn, but he doesn't allow it to stop him. "Call him out."
Naruto smiles wickedly. Direct confrontation. Complicated plans are overrated. This he can work with.
He breathes in, lets the air sit there for a second, prepares his chords. And yells for the cyclops.
The laughter stills in the cave. For a second, Naruto can hear the wind, and the fear from Annabeth, and the whispered arguing from Grover, and him. "Did you hear that too, pretty wife?" Polyphemus asks.
Grover, Grover, responds. What the hell? "-cy, the smell! I swear it's Clarisse and N— Yes! Yes, I did, dear. You should check it out." Clarisse makes a gagging noise. Naruto feels like that.
"Repeat," Jason says. Naruto nods. "Has your memory disappeared, fool? Have you forgotten my voice? After I gouged your eyes-eye- out. Hah! That was fun."
Naruto raises an eyebrow. "Really?".
Jason elbows him. Naruto steps away from him in fear of receiving anymore of those, and shouts all that out.
"No. I have caught you," Polyphemus denies.
"That is a phony. Do you remember me being a girl? How stupid you are. It is I, the real Nobody."
Polyphemus doesn't like his insults. The cyclops without much effort, slides the boulder over, and comes out swinging. Swinging a huge club. Huge enough that it makes Naruto feel like a mosquito under those electrical swatters.
It is slow, though. They all jump away in different directions.
"Where are you!" Polyphemus responds.
"Nowhere," Naruto snarks.
Polyphemus uses his voice to swing in his area. Naruto presses himself down to the ground, and the club sails just a bit over his head. When it hits the side of the cave it makes a loud boom.
Rock is quite literally atomized, and a resounding crack goes through the entre cave.
Naruto's mouth dries up a bit. He'll admit it, he was kind of underestimating the cyclops. He'd fought a couple of regular cyclopes between his arrival here, and he'd handled them pretty easily. Polyphemus is not one of those regular cyclopes.
Naruto is sure that without reinforcing himself with chakra, that would have killed him. Kind of like Hercules, but not. Hercules' hits are compact bombs. The cyclops is a building falling on you. Different types of strength really.
Naruto jumps up, and kicks the beast between the eyes. It takes a little step back, and… that's it. Then swings its club at him while he's midair.
Naruto widens his eyes, and brings up his arms, unable to dodge the attack. Before the club can make contact with him, Clarisse zips by with him in her arms like he's a princess.
"Thanks."
Clarisse lets him down. Naruto starts thinking.
Air approaches are dangerous. Not if he's not Jason who can fly. He'll stay stuck to its skin then. He doesn't know he'll damage it, but it's a start.
Jason calls the cyclops, posing as Nobody. Polyphemus doesn't detect the change in the voice, and roars. Lightning crashes down on the cyclops, stunning him and making him kneel. "Get the others," Jason shouts. "I'll distract him!"
Clarisse shakes her head. "No," she says, "As qu—"
"I won't die," Jason says, "Naruto said he won't let me, right?"
Naruto nods. "I'll be back before you even have the chance, Grace. And I'll bring some reinforcements. Annabeth should have an idea on how to damage this bastard."
Jason is about to say something, when Polyphemus attacks. Jason weaves through the cyclops fingers, and tries to pierce the skin of the cyclops with his spear. He would have had better luck trying to stab stone.
They enter the cave, and they're covered in a veil of darkness. Naruto doesn't even react when Clarisse lights up her spear.
But he does.
"When the hell could your spear do that?" Comes from their side.
Naruto looks over.
He meets sharingan eyes, and smiles. Three tomoe now, and there is something unbudging in that. Like, this is how it was supposed to be the whole time.
Percy, Percy Jackson, in the flesh, finally, has just been pulled away from above a pot of boiling, green liquid, and Grover, in a wedding dress, is trying to cut at the rope around his wrists.
He sees Naruto, blinking away the light from the fire out of his eyes. "Naruto," Percy breathes. Something is wrong in his tone.
"Percy" he says back. Percy shrivels up his nose. "You're mom is—"
"Yeah, I know. Annabeth told me."
Naruto's gaze flickers belatedly to look for Annabeth. He spots her being checked up on by Clarisse. She looks like she took a fall. Polyphemus probably dropped her like a sack of potatoes when he heard Naruto's jeering.
Naruto steps up to Grover. "Lemme help you, G-man." He looks at Grover's clothes. "Or is it G-woman now?"
Grover would never flip off anyone, but in that moment he looks frighteningly like he's about to do just that. "It's just a disguise," he protests.
"You don't have to lie, Grover. We accept you as you are."
"Naruto," Grover whines.
Naruto pulls out a kunai and makes quick work of the ropes. Percy stretches out his hands. "We have to talk," he says.
"We do?" Naruto asks, tilting towards the exit. "I think we need to go and help Jason more."
"Yeah, that's why I'll make it quick. But it's got to be now. I'm slowly becoming Percy more and more. If we wait, then I could risk not being able to talk to you."
…
…
"...What?" Naruto frowns. This would not be good if it ended with Percy having lost his marbles. "Percy–
"Not Percy," he seethes.
Naruto blinks, taken aback by the switch in mood. Not Percy? The Alaska crew had said something about that, hadn't they? He shoves the confusion down and finds his grin. "Sorry, Perseus."
"You really haven't figured it out?" Percy asks, one brow lifting.
Naruto stops smiling, feeling like he got something wrong. He can identify everything rolling on him, his sweat tracing down his brow, his hair itching the skin on his forehead. "Figured what out?"
Percy—or not Percy—leans forward, his voice slow, deliberate. "The eyes. Sally Jackson doesn't have these eyes, but Percy Jackson does? Think, dobe."
Naruto freezes. Dobe—a needle threading through the past and pulling something raw to the surface. "How— Perc– What the fuck?"
Something sticks in his chest.
Dread? Pain? f?
Percy smiles. His eyes flicker from the sea to blood. His face is wracked with age, and just a little bit of hate because Percy always has a little bit of hate at the gods, and is stretching with a smile that has a shadow he knows better than his heartbeat.
"Sasuke," Naruto doesn't ask, he doesn't demand, he doesn't whisper. He just realizes
Percy's smile blooms. Lopsided because Percy. Admonishing because Sasuke. A Sasuke before the whole Orochimaru bullshit. Naruto feels something break in him.
G
r
i
e
f
"Took you long enough."
Meh you figured this out already. I have to work on my plot twists. Unfortunately, the next is the same thing, and I'm too close now to fix it.
Bleh.