The fire had finally settled into that perfect slow crackle that sounded like it was breathing.
Sparks drifted up through a lattice of branches and vanished into the air.
Luke leaned back on his hands and tried to toast a hunk of bread without dropping it in the coals. Thalia ran a rag along her staffhead until it shone.
Annabeth sat cross-legged with her notebook open on her knee, scribbling in neat lines between mouthfuls. Naruto sprawled on the grass with his jacket bunched under his head, grinning at the way the canopy trembled whenever the wind threaded the leaves.
Kurama lay beside the fire like a hearth god no one had built the hearth big enough for. Nine tails swept idly through pine needles and old oak leaves, combing the ground in slow, lazy arcs. When the flames popped, one ear twitched, as if the fire had told a joke only he could hear.
"Rate the dinner," Naruto said, turning his bread. "Be honest and don't hold back."
"Four out of ten," Thalia said without looking up. "It's edible, and you get brownie points for not poisoning us."
Annabeth nudged her pencil behind her ear. "I could go for some brownie's right about now…"
Naruto threw an arm over his eyes. "Savages. All of you."
Kurama's rumble came soft and smug. "If your goal was to avoid killing anyone with food tonight, brat, I will concede your success."
"You keep talking like that furball and I will make you eat salad permanently," Naruto said.
"You wouldn't dare, brat.."
"Oh I would do more than dare…" he countered
Kurama's ear flicked again. The lazy sweep of his tail stopped midair.
The whistle was near silent, the kind of sound that could hide in the hiss of a fire. One second the world was as ordinary as it could be for a demi-god. The next, an arrow was a breath from striking Kurama's eye.
In a feat of reaction a tail snapped forward and swatted it aside. The arrow split against a rock with a high, brittle crack. Before the broken pieces hit the ground, Kurama was on his feet and the clearing had changed its mind about being peaceful.
"Up above!" he said, his voice a low thunder that shook ash from burned sticks.
Thalia was moving before she knew it, staff haft biting into her palm. Luke fumbled his bread and cursed. Annabeth slammed her notebook shut and grabbed Naruto's sleeve.
They came out of the trees like a cold breath. Cloaks the color of old moonlight, bows in steady hands, knives on belts that did not rattle.
They spread throughout the area without a word, slipping from trunk to trunk, some dropping into the ferns, some rising into the branches as if the trees had invited them in. Faces half in shadow. Eyes steady.
"Bandits maybe?" Luke whispered.
Thalia's voice had no air in it. "Those don't look like any bandits I know."
Another arrow hissed for Kurama and another tail batted it away with an annoyed flick. Kurama's lip peeled back from his teeth showing his fangs.
"Hey!" Naruto called, stepping forward with both hands raised. "I don't know who you think you are, but I won't let you hurt my friends."
Silence filled the clearing. Then three bowstrings lifted, all at once.
They loosed in the same breath and Naruto slapped his palms to the soil.
The earth beckoned to his call.
The first arrow cut the air like a whisper. Kurama's tail cracked it against a rock before it reached his throat. More followed, streaking from the trees in silver arcs.
Naruto slammed his palm to the ground. The soil trembled and burst into roots that braided tight, forming a wall. Shafts buried deep and quivered, but the bark flexed and healed over. Through the lattice of wood, Naruto felt them and every weight on a branch, every breath that stirred a leaf vein.
"There's two in the ferns and one above in the oak branch," he muttered.
The Huntresses didn't pause. They moved like wolves, silent, efficient and merciless. Arrows hissed again straight for Kurama, who batted them aside with tails, his fangs flashing in the firelight.
One broke cover, her voice sharp as steel: "Strike the beast down! Do not falter!"
Another hissed from the branches, loosing a shaft, "For Lady Artemis! End the beast!"
Kurama growled, teeth bared. "Monster, am I?"
Naruto's snarled. "Alright then I guess we're doing this the hard way."
A staff sprouted from his palm, its shaft smooth, its head a wicked point of living wood. He spun it once, bark squealing as it cut the air. The next volley came. He twirled the staff in a blur, knocking shafts aside, sparks hissing as silver tips scraped wood.
Then he sank into the Earth.
The earth rippled as his body dissolved into soil, vanishing like a shadow. One Huntress blinked, bowstring taut. A hand erupted from the ground beneath her and clamped her ankle. She gasped but it was too late.
With a savage yank, Naruto dragged her down to her shoulders, leaving her stuck in the dirt, arms flailing helplessly. Roots coiled around her chest, gagging her protests.
Another tried to cut toward Kurama. The trunk beside her bulged, and Naruto slid out of it like a ghost, staff flashing. She barely raised her blades before he swept her legs, staff whirling. A root lashed up, snaring her mid-spin, and slammed her into the earth hard enough to drive the air from her lungs.
Arrows screamed down. Naruto snapped his staff into a spinning guard, deflecting a storm in a whirl of wood and sparks. He lunged through the volley, the weapon whipping like a windmill, each rotation slapping arrows from the air.
A Huntress dropped behind him, knives reversed, aiming for his spine. Naruto's head tilted just enough. His body peeled into the bark of a tree like water flowing down. She struck wood. Before she could recover, the trunk split open and Naruto surged out, grinning, staff haft across her throat. With a twist, he threw her down, roots locking her limbs to the dirt.
"Sorry, but you're too slow."
Another arrow whistled past. Naruto flicked his staff, catching it mid-flight, spinning the shaft so it clattered harmlessly into the fire.
He sank again. The forest rippled with his passing, shadows shifting in roots and soil. Huntresses spun in circles, bowstrings drawn and knives high but the very ground betrayed them.
One by one, they were dragged waist-deep into earth, only their furious faces and shoulders left above. Others found trunks snaring their arms as Naruto stepped out of bark behind them, striking with the blunt end of his staff before roots swallowed them whole.
One Huntress went down hard, roots snaring her legs. She snarled, thrashing, silver knife flashing. "Unhand me, boy! You dare bind the Hunters of Artemis?"
"Sorry," Naruto said, grin wide, "but you walked into my forest."
Another spat as she struggled in the dirt, voice venomous: "You shame yourself, siding with filth. No man will be forgiven for standing with a monster!"
Naruto flicked her blade aside with his staff. "Good thing I'm not asking for forgiveness."
The Huntresses fought hard, blades flashing silver, arrows bending unnaturally midair but it didn't matter. This was his domain.
A pair tried to unfurl a silver net for Kurama. Naruto rose beneath them, splitting the ground wide. They fell in a heap as mud closed around their legs. He spun his staff, knocking the net from their hands, then pinned it to the dirt with a single thrust.
One archer still stood in the branches, loosing arrows in perfect rhythm. Naruto bent low, then vanished into the soil. She exhaled, string taut then froze.
The bark beneath her feet opened. A hand seized her ankle. She was yanked screaming into the tree, swallowed by living wood until only her head jutted from the trunk, eyes blazing with fury.
When the clearing finally stilled, it looked less like a battlefield and more like a cautionary tale. Every Huntress was trapped: half-buried in earth, cocooned in bark, or tangled in roots that squeezed just enough to hold them still. But their eyes burned and even bound, they spat defiance.
"You will regret this."
"The Lady will not forgive."
"No male stands against the Hunt and lives long."
"Well you tried to hurt my friend," he said. "And you forgot these woods don't belong to you."
Naruto stood at the center, staff balanced across his shoulders, the forest alive around him. Every Huntress was bound in wood or earth, their silver bows useless in the dirt.
His eyes darkened, "They belong to me."
For a moment, there was only the crackle of the fire and the ragged sound of breathing.
Kurama's ears flicked. His tails rose and stiffened, the fur bristling along his spine. The low rumble in his chest rolled like distant thunder.
"Someone's coming."
The air shifted. Cold, not with wind, but with presence. The kind of chill that slid into bones and made the air feel sharper. The sky above seemed to draw back, distant, wary. Even the trees tilted in silence, their leaves still as if listening.
From the shadows of the pines, a figure stepped forward.
She looked no older than Naruto; small, slight, the same height as him. A tunic of pale silver hung under a hooded parka the color of frost, the hem brushing her boots. A circlet caught faint glimmers in her dark braid. On her back, a quiver of white-fletched arrows whispered with every movement, and in her hand rested a bow that wasn't wood at all, but a sliver of the moon strung with light.
Her face was young. Her eyes were not. They were cold and endless, and they shone like winter stars, fixed squarely on Naruto.
Air went through the bound Huntresses like wind through grass.
The forest recognized her. Roots eased, branches bowed, the earth itself quieted as if greeting an old master. Naruto felt it and with it, the clean line of her dislike, already drawn toward him.
She stopped at the edge of the firelight, silver bow at her side, and the clearing held its breath.
"You tied up my maidens," she said. Her voice was calm and sharp, every word falling like frost. "And you dare shelter a monster."
Naruto shifted his grip on the staff, its bark-smooth haft still warm from his palm. He lifted his free hand, showing an open palm. "They attacked first. I didn't hurt them, just stopped them from making a mistake."
Kurama's growl rolled through the clearing, deeper than the fire's crackle. "They aimed to kill before a word was spoken." His tails curled protectively around Annabeth and Luke, shielding them as his eyes burned red.
Artemis' gaze flicked to the fox, then back to Naruto. Nothing in her expression changed.
"Release them."
Naruto shook his head. "Not unless you promise they'll leave him alone."
Her bow tilted. Moonlight slid along the curve, gathering on the string like water finding a blade.
"Do you dare bargain with me, boy?"
Naruto's grin pulled crooked. "Not a bargain. Just telling you how it is. I won't let anyone hurt my friends."
The Huntresses bound in bark and earth glared at him, some with fire, some with fear, but none spoke. Their eyes flicked to Artemis as if waiting for the storm to break.
Thalia raised her staff, jaw tight. "Naruto.."
"Stay back, Thalia." he said without turning, voice steady.
The air grew colder. The bowstring creaked as Artemis drew it, silver light coalescing into an arrow that hummed with power.
"Last warning," she said. Her voice never rose, but the ground itself seemed to still at the weight of it. "Release them. Step aside. Or be struck down for standing with a beast."
Kurama lowered his head, tails bristling high. "Brace yourselves," he rumbled to the children.
Naruto planted his feet, the staff steady in his hands. Roots stirred at his heels, coiling, waiting for his word. His grin came back, sharp as ever. "Guess that means we're doing this then."
The bowstring sang and the forest moved as the clearing shattered into war.
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