Naruto: Prince of the Underworld

Chapter 12 Joke's on Medusa!

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In a way, it's nice to know there are Greek gods out there, because you have somebody to blame when things go wrong. For instance, when you're walking away from a bus that's just been attacked by monster hags and blown up by lightning, and it's raining on top of everything else, most people might think that's just really bad luck; when you're a demi-god, you understand that some divine force really is trying to mess up your day or just trying to rid the world of you.

That was what was going through Naruto's mind as he walked along side Percy, Annabeth, and Grover. Currently, they were walking along the Jersey riverbank, with the glow of New York City behind them.

Grover was shivering and braying, his big goat eyes turned slit-pupiled and full of terror. "Three Kindly Ones. All three at once."

"Come on! The farther away we get, the better." Annabeth said, still looking shaken.

"All our money was back there," Percy reminded her. "Our food and clothes. Everything."

"Well, maybe if you hadn't decided to jump into the fight-"

"What did you want me to do? Let you get killed?"

"You didn't need to protect me, Percy. I would've been fine. Besides, we also had Naruto."

"Sliced like sandwich bread," Grover put in, "but fine."

"Shut up, goat boy," said Annabeth.

Grover brayed mournfully. "Tin cans ... a perfectly good bag of tin cans."

"OK! ENOUGH!" Naruto growled out. By the end of the arguing, Naruto's eye was twitching. "I got my money so I got enough for the trip."

"Oh right." Percy said thoughtly.

Annabeth just looked lost and said, "What do you mean?"

"Oh Naruto has a lot of money thanks to his old world." Grover replied, suddenly remembering as well.

"Oh...well that is good." Annabeth said softly.

After a few minutes, Annabeth fell into line next to Percy. "Look, I..." Her voice faltered. "I appreciate your coming back for us, okay? That was really brave."

"We're a team, right?" Percy asked with a smile.

She was silent for a few more steps. "It's just that if you died ... aside from the fact that it would really suck for you, it would mean the quest was over. This may be my only chance to see the real world."

"Technically, this is a double quest for both me and Naruto." Percy replied. "Besides, Naruto would never let me die....just like back in the bus."

"Got that right!" Naruto smirked. "Of course I would not let you two die either." He said, pointing to Grover and Annabeth, who looked grateful.

"Then I guess it is a good thing that we have two children on the Big Three on our side." Annabeth smiled.

"Yeah, especially one that is the son of the Lord of the Dead." Grover shakily said as the storm finally subsided, leaving them in total darkness as they drifted back into silence once....well until Percy broke it.

"You haven't left Camp Half-Blood since you were seven?" He asked Annabeth.

"No ... only short field trips. My dad-"

"The history professor." interrupted Percy.

"Yeah. It didn't work out for me living at home. I mean, Camp Half-Blood is my home." She was rushing her words out now, as if she were afraid somebody might try to stop her. "At camp you train and train. And that's all cool and everything, but the real world is where the monsters are. That's where you learn whether you're any good or not."