EDIT 2: I APOLOGIZE FOR THE MIX-UP! I PREVIEWED THIS STORY AND IT APPEARS THAT AN UNFINISHED CHAPTER WAS POSTED INSTEAD OF THIS ONE! I WILL TRY NOT TO LET THIS HAPPEN AGAIN! T.T
EDIT: Sorry for the repost, guys! I had to fix a little something in regards to Naruto's new weapon. I promise that I'll get working on a new chapter soon!
A/N: Firstly, I want to apologize for taking so long to finish this chapter - that I had in the works since AUGUST! Frankly, it's not fair to any of you readers to have to wait for so long; my chronic procrastination be damned.
So, even though I feel in my honest personal opinion that this chapter feels a bit lackluster, I'm pushing this out for all of you to enjoy.
On a happier note: my cousin is now happily married! It was a hilltop wedding in good ol' PA; it was slightly chilly, but the view was GORGEOUS...
Hello, one and all! Welcome, welcooooome!
Yeeesh, not that many reviews for last chapter, huh...?
Anyways, finally! We're really here!
The long-awaited godly parent reveal I promised you guys has finally arrived!
Kept you waiting, huh?
Alright, here we go!
BLAAAAAAAAAAAAADE OF OLYYYYYYYYMPUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUS!
Chapter Eight: The Child of Fire Part 2
"DIE!"
*KRA-THOOOM!*
She wasted no time in throwing arcs of static electricity at the leonine monster, who kept either tanking the hits or dodging around them. Normally, she would have fought with a more leveled head; the Daughter of Zeus knew of the lion's invulnerable hide.
But right now, she wasn't thinking straight at the moment...
'Your fault...'
The rocker-punk teen gritted her teeth as the narrowly dodged a swipe of the lion's giant paw, the force causing a few strands of her hair to move in the air.
'YOUR fault he's dead...!'
As the monster reared up on its hind legs, Thalia jumped back and aimed her spear at its face. The tip of her blade shot a bolt of electricity between the eyes of the Nemean Lion, which backed away in response so as not to be struck by her attacks. The monstrous lion then leapt forward with an angry snarl, its razor sharp claws eager to rend her flesh apart. Rolling away in the nick of time, the Daughter of Zeus furiously aimed her spear at the monster again, smashing against the side of the Armory.
'IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT!'
"HOLD STILL, DAMN YOU!"
*KRA-THOOOM!*
The Nemean Lion roared in challenge as it pounced towards Thalia, who had readied her Aegis shield to use against the monster. It froze momentarily, allowing the Daughter of Zeus to thrust her spear directly into its gaping jaw, harshly scraping its tongue.
*ROOOOAAAAAAAAAAR!*
Roaring in pain, the gigantic lion blindly started to angrily swipe at its attacker, who mistakenly raised her shield to block its oncoming paw.
Upon striking the protective obstacle, the monster sent poor Thalia stumbling back. On the second, it was able to knock her shield away.
The third blow flew just short of her face...but one of its claws roughly scraped across her left eye...
"GAH!" The rocker-punk teen cried out as she tripped backwards, dropping her spear to clutch at her injury. Only when she felt the lion's breath nearing her did she realize her folly. Thalia was certain that this was how she would die, when suddenly-!
*SMASH!*
A giant fist made of hardened stone careened its way against the monster's face and muzzle, sending it stumbling to Thalia's immediate right. When turning to face the oncoming ambush, the Nemean Lion was then met with another raging fist courtesy of Keisha's Stone Gauntlets. Zack caught up and carried the downed demigoddess away from the main fighting, helping Thalia to her feet and handing her an Ambrosia cracker.
"You okay, Thalia?" the Asian demigod asked.
The Daughter of Zeus gave an angry huff as she bit into the offered snack. Feeling her wound starting to heal, she turned to face him. "I'm fine! I'll feel better once that giant carpet rug's dead!" Sparks started shooting around her palms as Thalia picked up her spear using an electromagnetic field. "Now stay out of my way!"
"Whoa! Easy there, Princess Xena!" Luna piped up from behind, able to do so now that the Nemean Lion was forced off elsewhere at the campgrounds. Sucking her teeth, the Daughter of Apollo dabbed a cotton ball across Thalia's injured eye. "You're lucky you didn't lose your eye from that nasty swipe! Just need to see if its healing properly."
"I said I'm-!"
"No. You're not." Thalia never thought the Councilor of Cabin Seven could be intimidating, given her happy-go-lucky personality. But here she was, getting the frigid third degree from the older girl. "Now hold still and let me have a look. Okay?" Luna finished with an assuring smile. "Zack, do you think you can help the others keep that monster distracted?"
"You really gotta ask?" The Son of Hermes replied with a smirk as he zoomed off towards most of the fighting.
The rocker-punk demigoddess gave out an annoyed growl as she finally relented, allowing for Luna to check on her wound to make sure it healed properly. "Hmm, it's gonna leave a scar, but your eye should be fine." As soon as she was done, the sunny blond demigoddess nodded to herself as she gathered up her bow and got ready to join her siblings.
"Wait, where's Naruto?" Luna suddenly asked as she turned to face the younger girl. "Last I heard, he was with you clearing the forest earlier today..."
Thalia was about to speak, when suddenly the air started to feel really hot...
*SIZZLE!*
Turning to see where the sudden sensation of heat was coming from, the Daughter of Zeus turned to face the campfire...and gasped.
Meanwhile...
"Wake, Naruto..."
Naruto trembled as he attempted to open his eyes, his vision growing less blurry with every blink. When he fully came to, the young shinobi found himself surrounded by darkness save to a small campfire. There was a cloaked individual sitting in front of him, the hood up so as to conceal their face.
"H-hello...?" he asked, nervous around the mysterious figure. For a moment he stood there, waiting for some kind of response.
Then: "Wake, Naruto..." Finally, an answer. Female, judging by the voice. "The home...the hearth...is under attack...you must keep to the hearth"
"Wha...? The hearth? Home?" Naruto furrowed his brows together in frustration before widening in shock. "Crap, that's right! I gotta get back to camp!"
"Naruto..."
The whiskered blond paused at hearing his name, turning to face the hooded stranger.
"Have patience and strength for the trying times ahead." The woman continued in a soothing voice. "For the Blade of Olympus will answer the call...when the Pillars of Man shall crumble and fall..."
The young shinobi was confused. He had no idea what any of what she said truly meant.
"Never forget..."
As she spoke, the campfire soon shot out giant flames that would otherwise be disproportionate to its size as it surrounded the two of them. When the hooded woman raised her head, all Naruto saw were bright orange eyes filled with warmth.
"I will always watch over you, my son..."
Pain...
So much pain...
Groaning in agony, Naruto was barely able to open one of his eyes as he heard the monster's distant roar.
His lungs felt like they were being crushed and liquified; his skin cracked open like an egg. The whiskered blond could taste the coppery tang of blood leaking in his mouth, like an overfilled lake just waiting to burst. His bones felt like they were made of bitter glass, and immediately wondered when his accelerated healing would start to kick in.
'Oh. That's right...' Naruto thought to himself as he struggled to sit upright. 'Somehow I pissed off the fox, and now he's not helping me. Figures, it'd leave me to die when I need it the most.'
Looking around - and wincing in pain at even the slightest movement - the young shinobi saw various demigods running everywhere. Some went to drive off the Nemean Lion, others were tending to the wounded. He tried to move, but felt as though his body had been thrown into a blender screaming for him to yield. Part of him desperately wanted to. But the very thought of that monster running rampant because he let his guard down really started to burn...
Then he started to feel...warm...
Naruto suddenly realized that he'd landed right next to the campfire, the heat of its flames acting like the world's most comfortable blanket as he started to reach out to it. The young shinobi was mere inches from the hearth, now; hoping that he could get back up on his feet and heal himself enough to help fight the monster. The crushing weight of the various weapons puncturing his back all but pinning him in place, ripping at his skin inch by inch with even the slightest movement. Struggling with the last fibers of his strength, he was barely able to touch the outside of the firepit when a broken off piece of a sword impaled his hand onto the outer rocky wall.
"NGH!"
Hissing in pain, the whiskered blond struggled to rip his hand free of the protruding metal; he could feel the crumbled pieces of ambrosia crackers attempting to heal his near-useless hand. Climbing himself slightly higher, Naruto was able to reach the very edge of the pit and was about to use it to stand himself up when suddenly:
"Naruto..." A female voice spoke within his mind.
Naruto stopped immediately. 'It's that voice, again!'
"Come...into the hearth..." the voice repeated, her voice whispering as he finally stood above the ledge of the firewall. "Let the flames heal you..."
"...Jump inside the fire...?" The young shinobi muttered to himself as he tried to reach one of the many protruding weapons from his back to no avail. "Bad enough I look like a human shish-kabob, I gotta get cooked like one too?!"
Seeing that the voice in his head had gone silent - albeit with some prodding toward the flames! - the whiskered blond had enough. "FINE! Damn it, here goes nothing...!"
And so it was that Naruto Uzumaki stuck his injured hand into the crackling firepit. But to his surprise, he wasn't burned at all...
Instead, it felt good.
REALLY good.
Almost like he was being healed.
To Naruto's shock as he took a closer look at his hand, the tongues of fire themselves were searing his open wound shut.
Not only that, but the whiskered blond felt just a bit more rejuvenated. Pulling his hand back out, he was relieved to see that the wound from the knife to his hand was gone - almost like it had never happened.
'Huh. Okay...' Keeping this in mind, the young shinobi didn't hesitate any longer to jump head-first into the fire.
Literally.
"GAH!" Naruto gasped out in pain as he could feel the blades imbedded into his back begin to move. He could feel his bones were being set back into place as muscle fibers repaired themselves rapidly. "SHIT, THIS HURTS SO MUCH!" Gritting his teeth, he could do nothing as he felt the weapons shake before slowly starting to...push themselves out?
Glowing red-hot, the miscellaneous array of protrusions slowly jutted themselves out of Naruto's back as though being pulled out by an invisible force.
The young shinobi was trying not to pass out from the agony that the blades' movement were causing him. He was barely able to retain his footing even as the last bits of Celestial Bronze were finally ejected from his body. Soon, small wisps of steam trailed out from the openings where the weapons were once embedded into his back before they quickened to become raging jets, helping to seal his wounds shut as he stood up straight now. The Blades of Chaos began to glow a bright gold, orange wisps of flame coating the edges.
Miraculously, the clothes he had on didn't seem to burn up into a crisp.
Now fully recuperated, the whiskered blond let out a mad cackle as he leapt out of the firepit before racing towards the bulk of the fighting. It didn't take him long to find the giant lion - he just followed the sounds of screaming, roaring, and the smell of coppery blood.
By the time the Nemean Lion turned its head to face him, Naruto had already leaped atop its back once more. Against the roaring of the mighty beast, the whiskered blond wrapped the burning chains around its neck and head before tightening its hold, trying to steer the monster back towards the woods. Wracking his brain for any idea, he had almost missed the sight of Kassandra sprinting with Cataclysm in staff-form.
"Kass!" He managed to yell over the rampaging lion, "Think you can summon some water?!"
"Huh?!" Came the sudden response as the Latina fought to reign in her shock. She had just seen her friend nearly at Hades' doorstep just moments ago, and now here he was clinging atop the massive lion's back. "Y-yeah, I think so! Why?!"
"Great! Try to make something big enough to keep it still! I'll tell ya when!" Naruto ordered, his grip nearly slipping free of the chains.
"Wha-now?!" The Daughter of Poseidon exclaimed, her face one of aggravated stupor.
"JUST DO IT!"
Tightening the chains' hold on the lion, Naruto quickly conjured a Rasengan in his left hand and attempted to repeatedly smash it into the monster's eye. Snarling in anger, the beast tried to shake him off its back, the attack on its eye being more of a hinderance at this point.
Meanwhile, Kassandra gritted her teeth as she forced herself to focus. She truly couldn't believe the words that came out of the whiskered blond's mouth...
'Oh, "just do it", he says! WHAT THE FUCK?! I can't just magically summon that much water out of thin air, asshole!' Enraged, the Daughter of Poseidon tried to focus despite the ongoing battle raging around her. She could barely hear Cerys ordering her cabinmates to start throwing spears at the massive lion, taking care not to hit her friend.
Kassandra reached out deep with her senses, trying to find the nearest source of water that she could use.
At first she sensed the bathrooms. It was a good plan, but the Nemean Lion wasn't the kind of monster that could be easily done in by toilet water. She had to think bigger - and fast!
"Water can be found almost anywhere, no matter where we look." Suddenly the Latina demigoddess had a mini-flashback of her old fourth-grade science teacher going over the water cycle. "You can even find it's tiny molecules in the air we breathe!"
Her eyes widened in realization. 'That's it!' Concentrating again, this time Kassandra focused on the air around her as she held Cataclysm out in front of her body. She started to feel for the water molecules around her, desperately trying to grasp at whatever she could find.
'Come on...' The Daughter of Poseidon ranted as she couldn't find anything to use. 'Come ON!'
There was a pause...then!
'Wait...there! There!' Finally, Kassandra could feel the traces of water in the air. It was faint, but she could still sense the tiny molecules that she needed. Greedily she sought more, gathering them around her as they started to take a physical shape. Small tendrils of water surged up from the grass, forming a ring around her as she focused on increasing its size.
Nearby, Zack and Keisha could only gape in awe at the sight.
"...Uh, you're seeing this too right?" The Son of Hermes asked, his eyes threatening to pop out of his skull.
Keisha couldn't even respond, too shocked at the rapidly growing feat that Kassandra was performing in front of them. They know that she was a daughter of one of the Big Three, but this was ridiculous!
Even Thalia herself was starting to worry - she knew that her friend was nowhere strong enough to maintain that kind of focus for long without straining herself excessively. It wasn't like they had much time to train for it, let alone being given a reason why.
"THALIA!" The Daughter of Zeus shook momentarily from her pondering only to see her supposedly-dead frenemy currently trying to choke out the Nemean Lion with a pair of burning chains. "HOW BIG OF A BLAST CAN YOU MAKE?!"
"Big enough, Whiskers! But you need to get off of that mangy cat before you get yourself killed!" '...Again...' She couldn't bring herself to finish as she readied her spear for an electric blast powerful enough to stun.
"GACK!" The whiskered blond nearly choked on all the kicked up dust the monster was causing. "WAIT FOR KASS TO DO HER THING FIRST, THEN FOLLOW THROUGH! I'M GONNA KILL IT RIGHT NOW!"
"WHAT?!" The punk-clad teen was sure her friend had lost his mind!
"JUST TRUST ME!" Without delay, Naruto grasped both chains in his left hand whilst grabbing a kunai and a paper tag from his ninja pouch with his right. Looking it over, the young shinobi found that it was the same nullifying one that he was experimenting with earlier that day.
'Alright, gotta make sure this thing works...!'
Gripping the kunai into his mouth with his teeth, he formed a simple one-handed seal to form three more of the tags.
'Gotta thank Pervy Sage for teaching me how to do that next time I see him!' He quickly thought as he wrapped one of the tags around the handle of the smaller weapon before rearing his hand back for a downward strike. 'Please let this work...here goes!' Leaping off the massive lion's back, he gave the order:
"NOW!"
With a mighty roar Kassandra let loose a wall of water aimed at its legs and underbelly, partially succeeding at trapping the Nemean Lion in place just in time for Thalia to fire an electric bolt at the monster's chest. The beast roared defiantly, and Kassandra could see its defiance running strong even against so many demigods. No blade was able to pierce the lion's hide, save for a small electrified dagger buried into its face-wait...
'...How the FUCK...' The Daughters of Zeus and Poseidon blinked, stupefied as they couldn't even begin to comprehend what they were seeing. The Nemean Lion's legend was well-known throughout Greek Mythology, mostly due to its invulnerable golden fur. No weapon was supposed to get past its defenses - not even Celestial Bronze! "WHISKERS, WHAT DID YOU DO?!"
"KINDA BUSY, FRECKLES!" The young shinobi replied, wrapping the last two null-tags around the handles of the Blades of Chaos. "But could you fire another lightning bolt at the damn cat?! He's starting to come around!" Naruto swiftly rolled away from a powerful limb as it passed the empty air where his body once stood. Spinning the fiery blades in his hands, the whiskered blond waited until the monster was momentarily blinded by the sudden ball of lightning hitting its face. Only a moment, but that was all he needed.
'Good to know that the seal CAN work on the giant pussycat...Hecate, if you can hear me, thanks!'
Then Naruto made his move.
With a determined shout he flung the fiery blade in his left hand at the front right leg, the properties of the paper tag allowing it to cleanly sever the paw from the rest of the limb.
Closing in on the monster - snarling in pain at its now-missing limb - Naruto then cut away its remaining paw with the other flaming blade, even as more demigods looked on in shock at his actions. But he was nowhere near done.
The young shinobi wrapped both sets of chains around the Nemean Lion's muzzle before pinning them shut with his blades; one atop, the other from below. Gripping the lion's mane tightly in his left hand, he readied a violently-spinning Rasengan with is right as he slammed it directly at the still-sparking kunai embedded within the monster's face.
"TAKE THIS!" Naruto roared, "RASENGAN!"
*BOOOM!*
The destructive chakra sphere hammered the ninja tool deeper into its skull. The sudden impact also seemed to ignite the static electricity surrounding the kunai, causing it to erupt like a gory geyser as it finally collapsed to the ground. Seeing that the beast had been slain, Naruto willed away the Blades of Chaos back into their inert bracelet forms so as not to drag them everywhere he went.
A glint of shimmering metal caught his eyes, and the young shinobi looked to see a pair of tonfa where the severed paws once were - an immaculate blend of cast iron and Celestial Bronze. Picking them up and throwing punches in the air, Naruto nearly yelped in shock when suddenly golden magic circles appeared surrounding his forearms as a pair of shields would. With a bright flash, he found that the pair of weapons had shrunken down and changed form: a pair of bronze rings adorned with lion motifs around the bands and a glowing amber crystal sitting between a pair of leonine jaws in the center.
It was only then that he registered the sea of dumbstruck demigods gaping at him, making the whiskered blond nearly blush in embarrassment. Most especially was when he looked at his four closest friends at camp. Annabeth was starstruck as she hugged Kassandra's side, who was currently wearing a bewildered expression on her face as she looked back and forth between the dissolving corpse of the monster and her victorious friend. But Luke...he was cheering, but why was it that his smile didn't reach his eyes...?
"Uh..." He suddenly found his throat very dry
Silence remained still before someone started cheering, causing the rest of camp to erupt in triumph as they surrounded the young man, who was trying to catch his breath before they hoisted him atop their shoulders. They paraded him around the campgrounds to the Big House, where an astounded yet worried Chiron awaited them.
"What...by the gods...?" The centaur muttered beneath his breath as he pondered exactly what had just happened.
Mr. D merely stared at the whiskered blond. If he was at all bothered by Naruto's impossible feat, he didn't show it; preferring to remain silent on the matter as he begrudgingly took a sip of his Diet Coke.
Naruto himself, feeling a little squeamish at being paraded in the air by the cheering crowd, was all to grateful of finally being able to stand once they put him back on his feet. Dusting himself off, the young shinobi was about to start talking when he felt someone grab ahold of his shoulder. He turned only to see Thalia standing there, eyes covered behind her hair.
"...Thalia...?"
*BAM!*
"OOF!" Naruto hunched over in slight pain when she slammed a hard punch into his stomach. "What was that for?!"
"That's for being an idiot!" The Daughter of Zeus furiously replied, a dangerous growl in her tone causing the whiskered blond to grin sheepishly as he scratched the back of his head. "What the Hades were you thinking, riding the Nemean Lion around camp like a wild bull?!"
"W-well it all worked out, didn't it?" He tried to reason, only to balk as Thalia leaned into his personal space.
"Only after you got yourself turned into a pincushion and then nearly getting yourself killed again!" she berated. "Annabeth was almost killed by that monster!"
"Then it's a good thing that walking carpet's dead, now is it?!"
"No, it's really not! I thought you were dead!"
The two didn't say much of anything for a few seconds before Naruto let out a tired sigh as he looked at the ground. "I'm sorry, Thalia." He apologized, getting a stunned look from the rockerpunk demigoddess. "I didn't mean to make you guys worry like that..." Out of all the people gathered in the crowd, only he was close enough to see the beginnings of tears threatening to leak from Thalia's eyes however briefly before her face scrunched up on anger.
"Fine, dammit!" She snarled whilst crossing her arms over her chest, looking away with an irritated huff. "Just don't do something that stupid again, got it Whiskers?!"
"...Sure." The boy replied with a small grin. "I promise, Freckles..."
*gasp!*
Suddenly the pair of teens turned to face Luna, who was gaping in shock.
"Aw, c'mon Luna! Was that really necessary?" Naruto groaned in frustration. "What're you, my mom?"
To which the Daughter of Apollo shakily replied:
"No, but I think she is..."
Blinking in confusion, the whiskered blond saw that the Cabin Seven councilor was pointing above his head. Looking up, he gawked as three transparent glowing symbols appeared just above his head.
One was a bloody crimson spear pointed upwards.
The second was two purple torches crossed in an X-pattern.
But the last?
A bright, burning orange flame encompassing them both...
Naruto couldn't believe it. He was so sure that he wasn't a demigod - that he was only here by some weird transportation sealing jutsu.
"I-Impossible..." The whiskered blond turned his head to look at the ancient Trainer of Heroes, whose face had begun to pale. "T-this can't...she swore a vow..." Looking around, Naruto saw that the rest of camp was stunned to silence. Even Mr. D lost some of his usual composure, if the widening of his eyes were of any indication.
"Uh, guys...?" he called out, seeing as no one was saying anything. He looked to Thalia, trying to get some answers. "Thalia, what's going on?!"
The Daughter of Zeus thankfully was able to blink out of her stupor to answer. "I-...Whiskers, I think we know who your mom is..." But before she could further elaborate Chiron had regained his bearings and had begun to kneel, the rest of camp eventually following suit. Naruto could only feel his heart beating in hope and fear as he heard the centaur's words:
"Hail, Naruto Uzumaki..."
*BA-DUMP!*
"Champion of Hecate..."
*BA-DUMP!*
"Legacy of Ares..."
*BA-DUMP!*
"And Son..."
*BA-DUMP!* *BA-DUMP!* *BA-DUMP!* *BA-DUMP!* *BA-DUMP!* *BA-DUMP!* *BA-DUMP!*
"...of Hestia."
*BA-DUMP!*
-End-Chapter-
A/N: ...I feel like a fog has been lifted from my eyes. Like it was only yesterday that my cousins, my sister and I were still kids hanging around in our pool. Now, my eldest cousin's already married.
Shit, time really does fly...
Anyways, I hope you guys have a good one, and a Happy Thanksgiving if you don't hear from me in time! I'll be busy helping set up the decorations and prepping the food. Nothing like turkey and pork shoulder on the table surrounded by friends and family, amirite?!
CIAO FOR NOW!