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The bowstring thrummed like a harp string struck too hard. Silver light shaped itself into an arrow and split the air.
Naruto met it head-on, staff spinning. The shaft rang as it deflected the arrow into the dirt, frost spreading like spiderweb cracks across the soil. Artemis was already moving, a blur of pale light through the branches, loosing shot after shot so fast it sounded like rain.
He spun his staff in a blur, each strike batting arrows aside, sparks hissing where silver met wood. Then he drew in a deep breath. Chakra boiled in his gut.
"Wild Water Wave!"
The torrent erupted from his mouth in a roaring flood. But Naruto didn't just release it he leapt onto the surge, riding it like a charging beast. The wave carried him across the clearing, staff whirling, water crashing outward in a wall of spray.
Thalia's jaw dropped. "Is he surfing on the water that came out of his mouth?"
Luke's voice cracked. "That's not possible."
Artemis' eyes narrowed. She vaulted higher, firing into the torrent. Each arrow froze whole slabs of water into jagged icebergs, but Naruto smashed through them with his staff, laughing as the shards flew.
"You'll have to do better than that!" he shouted, riding the wave right up the trunk of a tree before vaulting off it, staff sweeping down in a crack of force. Artemis dodged, spinning her bow into a blade and parrying. The shock of the impact sent cracks racing through the frozen ground.
She slid back a pace, steady and gaze hard. "A child wielding earth, water, and wood.. How does the forest bend to you?" Her voice sharpened, almost a snarl. "That's my domain."
Naruto skidded to a stop, staff haft jammed in the mud, grinning through the spray. "Guess it likes me more."
Her bowstring shimmered back into being, silver light pooling into another arrow. She loosed it. The shaft drilled through a tree, which erupted into a storm of ravens, clawing at Naruto's face in a whirlwind of feathers and shrieks.
He laughed even as they pecked and tore. "C'mon! Is that all?" Roots burst from the ground, swallowing the birds mid-flight, dragging them shrieking into the soil. Silence followed.
Artemis froze. The forest hadn't resisted him. It hadn't even just ignored her command. It had obeyed him instead.
Her grip on the bow tightened. "What are you?"
Naruto's grin widened, teeth sharp in the moonlight. "Someone who get's real pissed off when someone tries to hurt my friends.."
Artemis' expression barely shifted, but her next arrow was no longer light, it was like moonfire, a arrow of raw divinity. She loosed it point-blank.
Naruto slammed his hands down. "Earth Shore Return!"
The ground surged up in a wall of stone reinforced by bark and root. The divine arrow struck like lightning, shattering the barrier in a thunderclap that hurled Naruto back across the new-made lake. He skidded across the surface, feet cutting spray, before planting his staff and grinding to a stop.
Kurama slammed his tails down around the others, shielding them from the shockwave. The water rose in walls on either side of him, then fell in sheets of rain.
Annabeth's voice was tight and trembling. "He shouldn't even be able to do that. Demigods don't control three elements like earth, wood, and water. That's not possible. Not even for a child of Hecate."
Thalia gripped her spear hard. "Then he can't possibly be a demigod."
Luke stared, water dripping from his blonde hair. "Then what is he?"
Naruto straightened, breath misting in the cold air, ichor glimmering from a cut on his cheek where a shard of divine silver had grazed him. Golden blood ran down his face, pooling at his chin like molten sunlight.
The Huntresses, still bound, gasped in unison.
Artemis' bow lowered a fraction. Her eyes locked on the ichor. "That isn't mortal blood."
Naruto wiped it with his thumb, still grinning, though his jaw was tight beneath it. "It doesn't matter what I am. You try to hurt them.." he tilted his staff toward Kurama and the kids shielded behind him, "and I'll stop you."
The lake he'd spewed rippled around his feet. He slammed his foot down, chakra boiling. Water surged again, roots bursting from its depths to coil like serpents. The earth groaned, the trees bent inward, the wilderness itself holding its breath.
Artemis raised her bow once more, silver burning brighter than ever.
And the clearing held still, two forces staring each other down: one a goddess of the moon, the other a boy who commanded the Earth better than she ever could.
The fight had only just begun.
The clearing trembled under their standoff. Moonlight and wilderness clashed, pulling the whole forest into their duel.
Artemis fired first. A silver shaft streaked across the lake, splitting into three midair, each aimed for a vital point.
Naruto spun his staff, knocking one aside, then slammed his palm to the surface. A geyser of water erupted, knocking the second wide. The third grazed his ribs, slicing through fabric. Golden ichor spilled in a thin line and healed just as quickly.
Artemis' eyes sharpened. She vaulted from branch to branch, bowstring singing. Every arrow bent the air around it, curving, cutting, and hunting for their target. Naruto sprinted across the water, his feet slapping ripples, staff spinning in wide arcs to bat aside the rain of light.
"Bottomless Swamp!"
The ground beneath the trees liquefied into black mire. Huntresses cried out as the mud swallowed them to their waists. Artemis landed lightly atop the surface as though it were solid. The swamp rippled under her feet, frozen in place by her power.
She loosed again, her arrow striking the swamp itself. A silver shockwave blasted outward, hardening the mud into stone, freeing her maidens.
Naruto's grin widened. "Not bad. But try this."
He thrust his staff down. Roots surged from the stone, ripping free with a roar, massive trunks twisting up to cage her in. Artemis blurred, shifting form in a shimmer of light. First she was a hawk, then wolf, then tigress tearing through the prison. She dropped back into her own shape, bow already drawn, loosing point-blank.
The arrow hammered into Naruto's chest, piercing his wooden shield and driving him back a step. He coughed in pain but his grin didn't falter.
"Alright," he said, rolling his shoulder. "Guess I'll stop holding back."
He clapped his hands. The lake rose with him. A wall of water spiraled upward, wrapping around his body like a cloak. It swelled, towering higher and higher, before crashing forward in a tidal surge. Naruto stood atop it, staff raised, riding the wave like a surfer.
The crash ripped through the clearing, uprooting trees and snapping branches. Kurama shielded the others with his tails, bracing against the roar.
"Di Immortales…" Thalia breathed, wide-eyed.
Annabeth's voice cracked. "He's reshaping the land itself.."
Artemis vaulted up the surge, skipping from wavecrest to wavecrest. Each arrow she fired froze slabs of water solid, shattering Naruto's tide into chunks of ice. She vaulted between them like stepping stones, closing the distance.
Naruto met her in the air, staff swinging in a broad arc. She twisted, bow meeting wood with a shockwave of sparks. Their weapons clashed again and again, each strike rattling the forest.
Artemis' knife flashed as she ducked under his swing and slashed across his side. More ichor spilled, golden and burning against the spray.
Naruto growled, slammed his palm into the trunk beside him, and the tree bent, wrapping its limbs like arms. It seized her mid-step, tightening around her waist and shoulders.
Her eyes widened. For the first time, resistance.
The bark creaked under her strength as she forced her bow to gleam, loosing at point-blank. Moonlight detonated, splintering the tree into broken shards. Artemis burst free, hair whipping in the blast.
Naruto staggered back, staff digging into the mud to brace. "Guess you're not untouchable after all."
Artemis raised her bow again, silver blazing so bright it painted the forest white.
Kurama's growl shook the ground, his tails sweeping wide in warning. "Enough!"
The fox's power spilled into the clearing, red chakra lighting the mist. The earth groaned under the weight of it, and even Artemis' silver dimmed against the raw pressure.
She held her bow taut, eyes locked on Naruto. He held his staff, the forest still humming at his back.
Neither moved.
And the tension in the air seemed to hang on a knife's edge.
The clearing was in ruin with trees splintered, roots torn raw from the earth, a shallow lake rippling where once there had only been dirt. Steam curled off broken ice. The Huntresses, freed by Artemis' will, gathered silently at her side, their eyes darting between Naruto and their mistress.
Naruto leaned on his staff, a grin still tugging at his lips despite the sting. "So… I guess that's a draw?"
Artemis' gaze was cold and steady, but there was calculation now where there had only been contempt. "You are reckless and arrogant. And yet you wield power I cannot name." Her eyes flicked to the roots still shifting faintly under his feet. "The earth itself bends to you, boy in a way it should not. You are a dangerous unknown."
Naruto just shrugged, grin crooked. "I've been called worse."
Kurama snorted from behind, tails curling back protectively around the children. "Fool."
Artemis ignored the fox, her gaze narrowing on Naruto. "This will not be the last time we meet."
She turned then, her eyes catching on Thalia. The girl stiffened instinctively, spear haft tightening in her hands. Lightning crackled faintly along the bronze tip.
Artemis studied her with the kind of focus that could strip someone bare. "You carry the blood of my father," she said at last. "A daughter of Zeus."
Thalia's jaw clenched. "Yeah. What about it?"
Artemis inclined her head slightly, almost formal. "It is no small thing. Out of respect for your lineage, I extend to you what I offer so rarely: A place among my Hunt." She raised a hand in quiet invitation, silver light pooling faint in her palm. "Sworn sisterhood. Eternal youth. Freedom from the pain that follows all mortal daughters of men."
The clearing seemed to hold its breath. Even the bound Huntresses, humiliated in the dirt, turned their eyes toward Thalia.
Thalia stood straighter, her fingers tightening around her spear. For a heartbeat, she almost looked tempted but then her eyes cut toward Luke, Annabeth, Naruto, and even Kurama, still bristling at her side. They were her family, as messy and makeshift as it was.
"Thanks," she said at last, her voice steady. "But no thanks. I already have a family. I'm not walking away from them."
Artemis's expression didn't change, but the cold in her eyes deepened, just enough to be felt.
"So be it."
Her bow shimmered back into silver light, and with a gesture, she and her Huntresses dissolved into radiance, vanishing into the trees as if the air had swallowed them whole.
The silence left behind felt heavy, the scarred forest holding its breath.
Thalia lowered her spear, exhaling hard. "A goddess. She just invited me to join her..."
Annabeth, still clutching her notebook, looked from Artemis' fading silver glow to Naruto.
"And she marked him as a threat."
Luke swallowed, his voice hoarse. "She's right. What in the Hades are you, Naruto?"
The grin softened, his eyes were tired but bright. Then, suddenly, his expression shifted to a grave, solemn, and almost wise demeanor. He straightened, folding his arms into his sleeves like a monk, and shut his eyes.
"The truth is…" he began, voice low and dramatic. The fire crackled. The air leaned closer. For one fleeting moment, they thought he might actually answer.
His eyes snapped open and he jabbed a thumb at his chest.
"I am the great Sage of Mount Myoboku!"
Silence reigned.
"…Mount what?" Annabeth blinked, pencil frozen halfway to the page.
Thalia's head tilted, her brows pinching together. "That sounds fake."
Luke just stared, sword limp at his side. "You've got to be kidding me."
Naruto held the pose, deadly serious. "It's a secret mountain, hidden far beyond mortal eyes. Only the ramen prophets of destiny may climb its sacred steps and.." He faltered, then blurted, "uh, learn the ways of ramen enlightenment!"
Thalia groaned and dragged a hand down her face. "Gods, he's serious."
Annabeth finally wrote something in her notebook and muttered, "Noted. He's insane."
Kurama let out a rumbling growl that might've been a laugh. "This brat just declared himself a prophet of noodles. And he expects you to take him seriously."
Naruto dropped the pose with a huff. "C'mon! It sounds cool, doesn't it?"
"No," Thalia, Luke, and Annabeth said flatly, in perfect unison.
Naruto sulked for all of three seconds before his grin slipped back into place. "You'll see. One day, The Legendary Sage, Naruto will be a name known around the world."
Kurama flicked a tail at him. "Legendary idiot, maybe."
The fire had burned to low embers, throwing only the faintest glow against the dark. The forest was quiet at last.
Kurama rumbled beside him, tails wrapped close like a wall of fur. He didn't say anything more, but Naruto could feel the fox's eyes on him, sharp and watching.
Across the fire, Thalia stretched out on her bedroll, spear laid across her chest. She exhaled slowly, like letting go of a fight that had never ended. Her eyes flicked to Naruto. "You alive over there, or just pretending?"
Naruto cracked a grin. "Alive. Pretty comfy too. Better than the rock I had for a pillow last night."
Thalia snorted, but her mouth twitched into the ghost of a smile. "Goodnight, idiot."
Luke adjusted the blanket he'd half-thrown over himself, his sword still well within reach. He gave a tired smirk. "If you start snoring, I'm kicking you."
"Wouldn't be the first time," Naruto shot back.
Luke shook his head, then settled onto his side. "Night."
Annabeth had been scribbling into her notebook until the pencil slipped from her fingers. She blinked blearily, hugging the book to her chest, and mumbled, "Goodnight… don't let the hellhounds bite."
Naruto grinned at that one. "If they do, I'll bite back."
Annabeth's lips twitched before sleep took her.
Kurama huffed, resting his head on his paws. "Children, all of you." His voice softened, rumble quieter now. "Sleep. I'll keep watch."
Naruto stretched out, eyes closing. "Thanks, Kurama."
The fire popped. The forest whispered. For once, there were no fighting, no gods, no monsters.
Just four kids and a giant fox, clinging to a sliver of peace.
"…Goodnight," Naruto murmured.
One by one, the replies came back, sleepy, rough around the edges.
"Goodnight."
"Night."
"'Night."
The words hung in the clearing, fragile and warm, a thread binding them together against the dark.
It was his first nightmare since waking up in this world.
He woke to silence. Not to the hush of the woods or the crackle of fire.
The cavern he was in stretched endless, its walls veined with molten liquid that pulsed like blood. Roots hung like ribs. The air pressed heavy, thrumming with an ancient heartbeat.
And then she stepped out.
A terrifyingly beautiful woman. Barefoot with hair long as the rivers, eyes green and gold glowing with spring and fire. She was beautiful and terrible all at once and her aura bent the cavern around her as every grain of soil strained toward her.
Naruto didn't recognize her face. But his bones, the roots under his skin, whispered her name.
Gaia.
Mother Earth.
He froze, breath locked in his chest. It was awe, not fear.
Her eyes fixed on him, sharp as chisels carving truth. "So. It is you."
Naruto swallowed. "…You're the Earth."
"I am Gaia," she said, her voice both whisper and a earthquake. "Daughter of Chaos. Womb of Titans, Monsters, and Giants." She tilted her head, studying him. "And yet… I do not recognize you.."
The words struck like stones.
Naruto frowned, fists tightening. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"You command my rivers. My forests bend to your step. And yet you are not of me. You are an… Anomaly. A blur even to my sight." Her eyes narrowed, and for the first time, her voice softened with something like unease. "That should not be possible."
Naruto's chest tightened, but he forced his chin up. "I don't care. My power's mine to use, and I'll use it to protect my friends."
Her lips curved, not in kindness. "So you say. But I see no clear thread. Even to me, your fate is clouded. Will you raise your hand against Olympus, to topple its greedy thrones? Will you fight beside the Titans, as they tear the world raw? Or will you stand with the Gods of Olympus as a shield against me?"
The cavern trembled and dust sifted down like ash.
Naruto gritted his teeth. "I'll stand where I have to. For them. That's it."
Gaia's eyes burned brighter, green and gold swirling like storms. "Even I cannot see what you are. That unsettles me. You are a branch without root. When I rise, you will stand at the heart of it. Harbinger? Savior? Destroyer? Even I do not know which."
The veins of gold dimmed, her form blurring back into the stone. Her last words rolled through the cavern like soil over a grave.
"We will meet again, child-not-mine. And when we do… the world will tremble with your answer."
OMAKE: LATE NIGHT LIES
The campfire snapped with shadows dancing across the clearing. The kids sat in a loose circle with Thalia polishing her spearhead, Annabeth scribbling notes, and Luke idly flipping his spare dagger. Naruto was perched on a log, hands gesturing wide as he launched into his tale.
"So there I was," Naruto said, his voice rising with every word, "standing on the edge of the desert, face-to-face with a monster so huge it made mountains look like anthills. Kurama's brother: Shukaku, the Sand Tanuki. Meaner than a sandstorm, uglier than ten ogres, with claws sharp enough to carve a canyon!"
Luke raised an eyebrow. "A… sand raccoon?"
"Tanuki," Naruto corrected sternly. "Big difference." He stretched his arms as far as they'd go.
"This guy was massive. Each step shook the desert. His roar made the dunes collapse. Whole armies had run from him. And me? I didn't even flinch. I cracked my knuckles and said, 'Guess it's my turn to fight a Tailed Beast.'"
Thalia scoffed. "Sure you did."
Naruto ignored her, grinning. "So I called one of my minions, the great chief toad, Gamabunta! He leapt out of nowhere, pipe in his mouth, sword on his back, standing tall on the dunes. 'Naruto,' he said, 'you better not screw this up.' And I laughed and said, 'Me? Never!'"
Annabeth's pencil stilled. "Wait. You fought a monster the size of a mountain… with a giant toad that smokes from a tobacco pipe?"
"Yes!" Naruto said proudly. "It was legendary! Gamabunta and me versus Shukaku, the desert shaking beneath us. I charged straight in, fists blazing. Gamabunta swung his sword, I rode his head like a cowboy, and together we smacked that sand tanuki right back into the ground! One hit, two hits, three hits, BOOM! Victory!"
Kurama's low rumble rolled across the clearing, red eyes gleaming. "That's not how it happened."
Naruto froze mid-pose. "…Yes it is."
Kurama's tails flicked in lazy irritation. "You cried the moment Shukaku opened his mouth. You begged Gamabunta not to drop you. And your brilliant plan was to glue yourself to my brother's tail until he tired himself out."
Thalia blinked, then slowly turned to Naruto. "…You… glued yourself to a giant raccoon's tail?"
Naruto waved his hands frantically. "It was strategy!"
Kurama's teeth gleamed in something like a grin. "You screamed the entire time. Gamabunta threatened to flick you off his head. The only reason you 'won' was because Shukaku's host woke up."
Luke coughed to cover his laugh. "So you didn't actually beat him?"
Annabeth was already jotting furiously in her notebook. "Conclusion: Naruto's tactical genius relies on… waiting for the enemy to wake up from their nap."
Naruto pointed both hands at the fox, spluttering. "Don't listen to him! He's twisting it! It was glorious! Legendary!"
Kurama rolled onto his side, chuckling darkly. Maybe to you."
Thalia leaned back, smirking into the fire. "Gods, you're impossible."
Naruto crossed his arms, cheeks puffed. "Still counts as a win."
Kurama flicked a tail at him. "Keep telling yourself that, brat."
The whole campfire erupted in laughter.
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