Writer's Note: Here we are once more! Health issues slowed my output down considerably, but I'm all healthy now and ready to write when the time allows! That means I'm back with another chapter for your consumption. Hopefully, you enjoy it! Let me know what you think. We're getting closer and closer to 1k reviews!

The Last Shinto Kami

Chapter Seventeen: Plagued

Artemis stared lifelessly into the ocean swell, the same boring surge of lazy momentum that saw their ship this far. She heard secondhand stories of the sea's allure but felt it not. Quite the opposite, actually. There was no swashbuckling sensation anywhere in sight. Artemis was bored out of her mind, which left her voice to compensate. "We are gods. Why are we on this boat wasting our time?"

"I have an even better question. Why not take a boat into Athens? Have you thought about that?" Unlike his prickly friend, Naruto thrived in these moments. It wasn't peace, but the freedom was a comfort that roused his spirit. Small things like this made life worth it. If you asked Naruto for his opinion.

His unabashed teasing didn't go over too well with the huntress. Artemis looked one bad nudge from lashing out in frustration, which would undoubtedly sink the modest ship floating them toward the great city of Athens. "This is a waste of time! We could be in Athens in the blink of an eye, but you insisted on the boat!"

"You might be correct, but then I'd miss seeing what the mortals see when they visit Athens. I think that is worth a handful of hours on the ocean." Naruto's wild grin turned into an eased smile as he looked toward the city waiting on the horizon, an epicenter of culture rarely seen in this world of theirs. It loomed like a beacon, demanding acknowledgment and respect from its visitors.

The Acropolis…

The Acropolis was a citadel of pristine buildings constructed upon the rocky terrace that rose over Athens proper. From this almost divine perch that lingered above all, it came off as a solitary fortress mortals could admire but never touch and take comfort in knowing the protection it provided. But one jewel distinguished itself from the rest of the Acropolis.

The Parthenon…

At the highest point in Athens, the blessed temple of Athena, Parthenon, basked in the light of day. Even from a distance, Naruto reveled in the iconic column lines and stories carved into the triangular pediments at the Parthenon's pinnacles. From here, it appeared that the temple wasn't under the sky. It looked like Athena's Parthenon went into the clouds and into the heavens of Olympus. "What a beautiful sight... seeing it now, it's hard to believe the building was destroyed."

Standing at Naruto's side, Artemis joined Naruto in looking up at the Parthenon. "Sister was furious when the Persian army sacked Athens. None of us were happy. It's one of the few times I can remember where all of us Olympians were a united front." Unlike Naruto, who saw beauty in Athena's achievement, she saw a building. It was impressive, but nothing more than that.

Naruto made a muttered sound but opted against giving his opinion. He remembered the Persian invasion of Greece and the conflict that ensued. The sunny Kami could still picture the dying Persian soldiers he'd stumble across back then. Alas, this wasn't the time for memories. The ship reached the dock. Securing the boat was a simple process, and soon enough, Naruto and Artemis were on solid ground. "I haven't been in a city this large since the final days of the Trojan War."

Less fire and blood, though…

Artemis went to offer her support, thinking Naruto might be experiencing repressed trauma. Then she saw the hunt of excitement in his golden orbs and changed course. That was one thing about Naruto; his eyes always told the truth. "Don't even think about it. We are here for a purpose. There is no time for your hijinks. Galavant on your own time if you must."

Despite his best attempt at weakening Artemis' stance with a pleading pout, Naruto won no lenience. He left a lingering look at the husband and wife selling painted pottery pieces and dried meats. "But they may have something I need! I can't miss out! Let's look through the market... just for a bit!"

"Stop goofing around! We still need to find my sister..." Artemis wasn't against taking Naruto by his wrist like a small child if that's what it took to put him back on track. With some good fortune, they wouldn't have to go far before Athena found them. Her wise sister was that type of personality. One who took the initiative.

"There won't be any need for that, Artemis. I am already here." The blissfully ignorant crowd parted in two, making way for the city's patron goddess. Fitted like the warrior she was, Athena donned a detailed breastplate with two owl pendant clasps that held her cape along her back. Athena's tan skin sat in the sun's shine. Her thin lips edged into a smirk as the seaborne wind shimmied her near-shoulder-length twists of blonde hair.

Holding her fabled spear at her side, Athena brushed the twisting hair strand away from her flawless face. With that touch of maintenance done, the goddess of wisdom moved forward. Athena's intense grays glued themselves on Naruto, judging his measure for the first time. "You've had a meteoric rise in our world, Naruto-Omikami."

Never one who backed away from a challenge, Naruto answered her stare with one of his own. There wasn't tension, but a spark of something lingered between the two deities before Naruto's stoic facade crumbled, and he smiled at the Greek goddess of war. "Tell me one time where change is met without resistance from the old ways, Athena Parthenos. For better and worse, I embody that change."

Athena respected Naruto's answer. The depth of thought and conviction he showed told Athena that Naruto wasn't taking this lightly, herself included. "I questioned why I couldn't find you after Troy's fall. It makes more sense in hindsight."

The familiar feeling of curiosity got the better of Artemis here. Her intention to stay a silent observer ended with her sudden interruption. "Why? It isn't like you to take more than a passing interest in mortals." If Artemis remembered correctly, Odysseus of Ithaca was her sister's prized champion during Troy's last days.

Athena understood her sister's confusion. It was a logical conclusion worthy of mentioning. "The original idea for the Trojan Horse came from Naruto. I perfected and employed the concept in the field, but the idea was his creation."

Artemis received the information with a muted hum. Naruto had other opinions.

He devised the grand wooden stead solely to get his men home sooner. That is why Naruto quickly moved the conversation away from his role in ending Troy's battle with the Greek coalition. "What did you want with me? To reward me or something?"

A lost look of irritation ramped through Athena's gray eyes. Taken in by her past failures, the mistress of wisdom let time-begotten grievances be known with a thread of words. "I wished to see you as my new champion of the age. My former choice changed from how I designed him. Arrogant and vain, the man's deeds went to his head."

Naruto wasn't sure what to say. It was clear Athena was stuck on some hang-up from the past. Which in turn inadvertently created an awkwardness. Doing his best to fake a cough, the son of the sun ventured forth with a way out. "Sorry to hear that... well, I'm here now."

Credit where it's due, Athena didn't linger long. Naruto's verbal nudge was all it took to let the past rest and bring the goddess back to what was happening here and now. "That you are. Come, we will need a more fitting location for a meeting of this importance."

A mere tap of her spear spirited the divine trio away from the dock. When the world formed around them, the three gods stood in Athena's parallel realm in the Parthenon. Artemis instantly recognized the table in front of them. She knew one of Athena's think tanks when she saw it. "What are you plotting this time, sister of mine?"

"Mark my words, I shall have my pound of flesh from the Persians. I know the desecration of my city was perpetrated by the so-called Ahura Mazda. They will pay dearly for their transgressions." Athena waved her hand, making the walls around the change from a war room to a parlor with two opposed couch seats. "But that is not what I asked you here to discuss."

Athena claimed one of the benches, putting her spear against the arm, while Artemis and Naruto sat side-by-side on the other. The insatiable thirst for knowledge gleamed true in Athena's eyes as she summoned an infinite notepad to her hands. "I have some questions I'd like you to answer, Naruto."

Naruto melted back into his seat with a heatless groan. Telling a comprehensive version of his history took a lot out of him. "I don't think I've ever spoken about myself this much at one time. I actually hate it."

Artemis smiled as she took Naruto's hand in a silent show of support. Humoring his theatrics for the sake of it, she said the following. "You understood what you signed up for. Don't complain."

The innocent display of affection between the sun and moon went unnoticed by Athena. She was much too absorbed in her notes, like the words played a story only she could see. "The reverence your people hold for the world is fascinating. It's a symbiotic relationship entirely different from how isolated Zeus wants us from the mortals who worship us."

"Not that it works. Our family can't stop coming down from Olympus."

Naruto grinned at Artemis' deadpan delivery, then focused on her wise sister. "Differences are what make cultures so important. A world where everything is the same is a world on the brink of death." Athena's scholarly enthusiasm made the dry mouth worth it. He and Athena were alike in that way. They liked learning new things.

The patron of Athens sighed longingly, following her fast-running imagination's lead. "If only my domains were more attuned with the natural world. Imagine the doors that'd open..." Athena sent her manuscript on Naruto's story away for later review. "That said, I'd like your counsel on another project I have in the works."

"Project?" Naruto asked with the taint of curiosity tickling his tentative mimicry of her word.

"My goal is to take things from the wilderness and harvest their lesser-known properties for more commercial and medicinal uses. Your expertise would be instrumental in this regard, Naruto. You as well, sister." Athena's ambitions weren't shallow. However, she believed that with enough work, they could be brilliant successes.

Artemis and Naruto exchanged glances, and through raw body language, the pair reached an understanding that left them nodding. "We'll be happy to assist however we can, sister." It was the least she could do to pay Athena back for the countless times she helped Artemis train the hunters in the ways of warfare and tactics.

"We can do more than help! The three of us working together? We'll have groundbreaking advancements everywhere we look!" Artemis deflated Naruto's natural exuberance with an elbow buried in his ribs, getting a grunt from the sun bringer. He glared playfully at her before turning back to Athena and giving her a confident nod and a smile.

"I appreciate the optimism, but it's for the best if we move ahead slowly. The fewer mistakes we make, the better off we are." Naruto fell in line with Athena's disciplined demeanor. Their talk hit a snag when Athena's owl landed on her shoulder, hooting up a storm. Athena levied a targetless glare. One that made the room feel twenty degrees colder. The sudden change put both Naruto and Artemis on edge.

"The city needs assistance. Our talk will have to continue another time." On Athena's will, the trio of divines stood at the edge of the Acropolis, from where they saw the distant glow of orange under a blanket of black. It was fire. It was smoke. And lots of both. Athena buckled under a wince as the people's hysteric pleading hit her simultaneously.

Athena rocketed off the tall terrace as an owl. Artemis was a pace behind her older sister, traveling the skies as a hawk. Naruto didn't have the luxury of an animal form, so he became a lance of golden power that seared the sky as it went toward the billowing sea of smoke. The only way to solve the chaos was to dive head first into the pandemonium and dive in they did!

Last to leave but the first to land, Naruto bore the brunt of the jarring visual in front of him. "What in Mother's name happened?" Artemis sharing his shock wasn't a consolation. Even the unflappable Athena was rooted in place, taken by visceral silence as she gazed upon the clusters of suffering people dying in the street. They were living corpses that clung to fading life, hacked up vile fluids, and withered around every labored breath. All the while, smoke clawed at their watering eyes and raw throats.

It was a hellish scene drawn from the depths of Tartarus' most damned pit. An apocalyptic picture that almost beggared belief.

"A high fever with redness and extreme inflammation around the eyes. There's trails of blood in the mouth." Naruto hurled himself from the veil of mist that covered their descent and ran to the nearest sick individual. His altruism and bravery held firm, uncaring for the sickness that crashed against his skin and died upon being pitted against his divine immune system.

Shortly after Naruto propped him up, the man suddenly sneezed and started choking out more blood. It was like the sneeze's jolt kickstarted the sickness all over again. Naruto's steadying hand did little to ease the man's burning despair. "Help... help me... please..."

'Sneezing with a cough... the voice is all but gone.' As more symptoms piled up, Naruto panicked. His mind frantically searched for an answer but found an empty void. Naruto helped the man turn over, trying to assist him through his struggle to vomit. Through it he felt the violent convulsions suck away more of the man's waning strength. In the same way, Naruto felt the festering pustules on the back of the man's arms squish unsettlingly under his hands.

Vomiting and convulsions…

Rot-taken ulcers and pustules…

"Hold strong. I can help... hold on to hope and fight." Naruto spoke about hope, but the words never reached the man teetering in and out of mortality. Scrambling to lift the man's worn shirt, the Kami's hand fell short because of what he found waiting. Horrid patches of putrid flesh. Streaks of dead black that weren't ever coming back.

"Gangrene..." And there were already hundreds of men and women all around showing the same black smear of death.

Athena needed a plan yesterday. That's how behind this strange disease the strategic goddess was. Time being of the emphasis, she left Naruto and Artemis with hardly five words. "I'm going to find Apollo."

Naruto had no plans to sit around and wait for help. His hands ignited with godly authority, and Naruto went to work. The frown entrenched on his face went deeper and deeper as he toiled. Just when Naruto thought he had the illness on the retreat, he felt the taint in the man surge stronger rather than be eradicated.

A desperate succession of bloodied chokes and chipped nails biting into his skin broke Naruto's concentration. The primal fear of death building in the man's dilated eyes as he asphyxiated on blood and vile stuck with Naruto as he tried every trick he knew to save the man. "Look at me! Look at me... it's alright, I can save..."

Too late. The man was already dead. Lost to Hades' realm eternal.

Naruto's movements were empty as he gently put the man's warm corpse on the ground. The Kami's sanguine-soaked fingers carefully closed the dead man's eyes before Naruto held his crimson-colored hands in front of his face. Those typically vibrant golden eyes went a milky mute as the reality of his failure hit Naruto full force. "I... I couldn't save him."

A hand suddenly on his shoulder made Naruto jump in his skin, but his dear friend's concerned voice calmed the Kami a little. "Naruto... what happened?" That's right, Artemis was still at his side.

"My essence... it didn't destroy the illness. Whatever this plague is... godly power only made it worse." His voice, which usually held fast like a blazing inferno, quivered with the nagging agony of his failure. Doubt crept in every tapered breath.

"Naruto..."

He wouldn't allow Artemis the chance to console him. Not when there were far more important things at stake. "Artemis! Go get as much clean cloth and water as you can get your hands on. And grab as many medicinal herbs and roots as you can carry! Go!"

Artemis wasn't blind. She knew what Naruto was trying to do, and it got him a sad look before she went to do as he asked.

Naruto heard the footsteps fade away as he put his head down, covering his anguished eyes with his wild hair. Rats ran past his ankles, scuttering to dark corners and into the ship-connected docks. 'I don't know what to do, but I won't give up.' Whether Naruto believed himself or not, he gathered his resolve all the same. 'I won't give up...'

"Someone save my husband! He's all I have..." Naruto walked over to see if he could ease the man's suffering, but others in Athens weren't that lucky.

Deeper in death row, a mother rocked her child in her arms, humming a morose tune beneath her breath. The sorrowful sung words took an entirely different meaning when one came to the chilling realization that the young daughter was a cold corpse in her mother's arms.

"The line between naivete and hopefulness is almost invisible, so close your heart, the world is dark..."

The tortured woman couldn't finish her song without bursting into tears and choking up with a weak whimper. Words eluded her as she leaned down and kissed her deceased daughter on the forehead with a pained grimace.

Close your heart...

The world is dark...

And hope is hypocritical...

Death is inevitable...

An objectively beautiful man emitted the brilliance of light even as he stood hunched over. Palpable frustration leaked from his firm physique as he continued scouring lines of text for an answer. Some stress lines marred his eternal beauty as golden loops of hair fell in a hot mess over his blue eyes. It showed how much he neglected himself during this unprecedented period of strife.

This golden beacon was Apollo, twin of Artemis and son of Zeus and Leto, but not a side of Apollo that came out often.

The jovial jokester that Apollo frequently depicted wasn't anywhere in sight. His tense demeanor was a jarring departure from the free-loving vibrancy the gregarious god's reputation was built around.

"There has to be something about this outbreak somewhere in here..." Sunlight, archery, medicine, prophecy - Apollo's myriad of domains were a testament to his importance. In Greece, the golden god of the sun's fame rivaled his father's in certain sects. Perhaps that's why Apollo is pushing himself so hard to meet the expectations thrust upon his shoulders. "Every sickness has to have a cure!"

Opposite her half-brother, Athena gripped the end of the table tight enough that she made the wooden slab splinter under her godly grip. This tedious outlet was all she could do to keep herself from lashing out over the infuriating helplessness she felt. "I searched every book I possess three times. The information we have is frustratingly scarce... mere allusions and stories about the things we already know."

"Damn it!" Apollo didn't have his elder sister's restraint. In a fit of anger, he set the journal in his hands on fire, sending it up in a flume of fire before he dropped the smoldering ash pile onto the floor.

Athena sent the ruined smolder stack away, unwilling to suffer through an unclean environment in her temple. Her cold glare sent a message that her uncompromising words reinforced with emphatic authority. "Control yourself, Apollo. I won't have one of my temples burning down at a time like this."

Apollo grunted but didn't challenge Athena. "Sorry..." With a sigh to compose himself, his weariness surfaced as he rubbed at the bridge of his nose. "This plague is making me sick to my stomach, literally. It's also taken a Hephaestus-sized hammer to my temper."

Typical of her, Athena didn't see a reason to linger on something inconsequential as an emotional outburst. Her time was better spent trying to engineer a solution to this plague problem. "How about your demigod son? The one who is a renowned prodigy in medicine?"

"Asclepius?" Apollo would have loved this chance to put over his most talented child, but the boisterous sun lord knew this wasn't the time or place for bragging. "I put him on the case since the day after the sickness hit. He's had the same luck as the rest of us."

"That is unfortunate." Shutting her eyes, Athena took a breath and opened them again to put forth her most steadfast glare yet. Soul solidified and mind unified, she suggested the unthinkable. "If destroying the sickness is impossible, we must consider containing the plague and waiting it out."

Her cold calculus brought a shocked flinch from her younger sibling. Apollo was too surprised to do anything but stare at his wise sibling for a long heartbeat. "Athena... these are your people. If we do nothing, they will die."

"This isn't something I suggest lightly, Apollo. However, facts are facts. Hades has already confirmed sixteen thousand deaths in the first three months. If we allow this plague to spread, it will have dire consequences for the entire world." Her eyes stared blankly into the middle distance over Apollo's shoulder as she ran through thousands of seemingly inevitable outcomes.

"Sacrifice a few to save many..." Just saying such a callous thing seemed to suck the brilliance out of Apollo's godly countenance. The worst part was Apollo couldn't argue against it. It was the right move.

Athena didn't back down. She doubled down on her vision forward. This is what a leader should do... make the impossible choice to cement a life past tomorrow. "I don't enjoy making this choice, but it is necessary to ensure the future. Our future."

"Still, there has to be something we haven't tried...?" His weak insistence stood as sure as the credibility of his faltering confidence. But sadly, Apollo knew the answer, no matter how much he wanted to avoid it.

"Apollo, we are out of time. If we lag any longer, it will be too late to save anyone. Go, inform the others." Done dancing in verbal circles, Athena slammed her foot down and determined the lives of thousands who lived in her seaside city.

"Yeah, I'll go spread the word on Olympus. I hope you're right." A golden glow signaled the sun god's departure, and the coldness he left behind wasn't just Athena being dramatic.

Without Apollo's presence, Athena no longer needed to keep up the charade. She nearly crumbled to her knees. It was her hand on the wall that barely saved her from falling. Her serene gray eyes shut tight as Athena sucked in a short breath. Their screams still rang in her ears and no amount of logic could shield her from the despair strangling her city. 'Forgive me...'

There is a running remark among immortals, a popular comment that served as an inside joke with a dash of truth buried in its satirical humor. For gods or any immortal, long years pass like the blink of an eye.

But not this time. This time, Naruto felt like every new day was a lifetime filled with the pain of suffering. Four endless years. That is how long Naruto watched helplessly as the people of Athens languished in hopelessness as the gods they worshipped couldn't do anything but observe their plight.

Fourteen hundred and sixty days... Naruto spent four years going out and doing anything he could to help the people through this unholy purging. Fourteen hundred and sixty days of unmitigated failure.

But that was the past.

In the present, the last dregs of this putrid pestilence dissipated. A new day dawned in Athens. A healthier day. It should have been reason for celebration, but try telling that to the ninety-five thousand people who perished during this egregious epidemic.

For those not in the know, that was a staggering twenty-five percent of Athens' population snuffed out by an apathetic plague.

Bodies... there were so many bodies. They burnt them at sea. They buried them in the countryside surrounding Athens. But the bodies kept coming... it was almost numbing. Where the other gods grew distant, Naruto shared in the pain and tears of those the dead left behind. He soaked up the negativity to a damaging degree so that he'd never grow numb to the disaster he couldn't prevent.

Naruto needn't look any further for a somber reminder than the rows of graves that went well into the horizon. And this was but one massive cemetery of many that held the plague's victims. Four years later, he still saw all the faces of the dead when he closed his eyes. He heard their cries whenever he was alone for too long.

He remembered the suffering like it was yesterday.

"You can't keep doing this to yourself. It isn't healthy, Naruto." The blonde and black Kami knew the Greco moon maiden was behind him long before her voice announced her presence. Didn't mean Naruto could bring himself to look away from the field of burial plots.

His brilliant glow was a lackluster shell of what it once was. Dampened like the emotion pouring out of him, Naruto let the emotional weight crushing him be known. "Remembering their desperate struggle is the least I can do for those poor souls who will never feel the sun's warmth again. They deserved more than a cold coffin."

"You single-handedly did more than anyone could've asked of you, but even you can't save everyone. Life isn't kind like that." Artemis tasted the ash in her mouth. She hated how crushed her friend was over this. She hated her inability to help him through it.

"What do you want me to say? That you're right? I couldn't save them, but I should've been able to do something! Isn't that what gods like us are for...?" It started with Naruto shouting but rapidly turned into a defeated whisper. One at home in a gloomy graveyard.

"It's a truth we bury in the darkest corner, and that is we gods aren't perfect beings. We don't control every aspect of the universe. We can't see every outcome. This horrible sickness was an act beyond us, Naruto. You did your best, and if you hold yourself responsible for this tragedy, it will destroy you." Leto's daughter waited for some elicited response. However, all she got back was a deathly silence.

Impatience fueled by genuine care got the better of Artemis as she gently took hold of Naruto's wrist. "Look at me, Naruto."

Naruto didn't resist her pull. He shambled around, letting Artemis see his sullen expression doused in freshly fallen tears that glistened over his golden solar spheres. "I... I can't stop crying, Artemis. Look at me... a god weeping for mortals. I wasn't strong enough to save them, and I'm not strong enough to be strong for them. Is this what a superior being looks like?"

Artemis couldn't lie; he most definitely surprised her. She never saw anyone from her family cry, but once the surprise passed, Artemis felt her heart clench every time Naruto's voice quivered. "Oh, Naruto..." Wiping away his tears, she pulled him in and felt his body tremble against her protective embrace.

Quickly spiriting Naruto away, Artemis took Naruto to her camp, taking advantage of its present emptiness. She sat with Naruto in her tent... not that the latter seemed aware of his surroundings beyond the presence of her body holding his own. Her hand on the back is all it took to have the Kami vent his frustrations through a constant stream of hot tears.

"I'm sorry... I'm sorry... I'm sorry..." The pain buried in Naruto's wounded soul leaked from every choked word. Artemis didn't need empathy to feel the torturous level of torment the blonde in her arms was going through. If only she could do something about it.

When words became a poor substitute for comfort, action took precedence. Instead of stating something recklessly, Artemis swayed with Naruto as an assurance he wasn't alone in the dark. To assure him that despite all the hideous things they saw, she was still by his side.

'You aren't alone. I'm right here... it will get better, Naruto.' And while Artemis believed it'd get better, she wasn't foolish enough to say it aloud. Because if things got worse before they got better, a poorly placed word now could do irreparable damage to her sunny friend.

END

Writer's Note II: A sickness the gods can't cure? How is that possible? We'll find out as our characters find out!

It's been some time since Naruto's been down bad. Failure has caught up with our blonde protagonist. Now, all we can do is see how he reacts to this terrible personal failure.

I'd appreciate it if you could show support and spend a minute putting out a review. So long as your private messages are open, I respond to every review I get. It's a good way to get some questions answered... to a reasonable extent. Anyway, thanks for reading!