17. One Final Conflict

There was a rather nice surprise for me when I woke up and brought in the newspaper. On the Metro page was a side view picture of Richard pushing Gabe into his car with the heading HUSBAND FOUND TO BE GUILTY OF DISAPPEARANCE OF MOTHER AND SON. My eyebrows shot to the top of my forehead as I read the article which said that apparently Gabe had for some unknown reason rigged his Camaro to break down while we were away from civilization in an attempt to strand us in the wilderness. Apparently, it was only my survivor's instincts that allowed us to find our way back to the city in one piece. Gabe was now in an undisclosed prison awaiting a trial for the attempted murder of her and me by way of letting the wild take care of us.

I chuckled as I finished reading the story before I walked into the kitchen where mom was making blueberry pancakes and said "Hey mom, take a look at this." I handed the newspaper to her and took over cooking breakfast as she read the article. Her own eyebrow raised as she read the article and said "I have to say, your father works fast. We got in the city at three in the morning last night and there is already an article explaining away what happened without saying what actually happened."

I gave a hum of agreement as I manipulated the water in the pancake matter to spin it like a miniature whirlpool to blend all of the ingredients together as well as possible before I poured the batter onto the skillet and let it start cooking. Annabeth and Grover came in soon after and helped mom set the table.

Once breakfast was served and everyone had their fill, mom called for a taxi to take us to camp. While we waited, I made some sealing ink and made a new set of seal tags which I tied to the rings of eight of my steel kunai. From the apartment to camp it was a silent ride to the hill that held Thalia's tree and the entrance to the camp where we exited the cab and continued the rest of the way on foot. As we walked, I placed a small genjutsu over us that acted similar to the Notice-Me-Not charm from the Harry Potter series since I didn't want to give Luke an advanced warning of our return. When we reached the top of the hill, Annabeth and Grover took a moment to take in the welcome sight of the camp before they caught up to me as I continued walking to the Big House.

When we reached the house, we came upon the sight of Mr. D standing in front of the front door with crossed arms frowning at us. His eyebrow raised as he said "I see you three made it back intact. Good for you."

I rose an eyebrow of my own and thought 'Note to self, The Hiding In Plain Sight jutsu doesn't work on gods.' Out loud, I said "Yes it was good for us. May I ask why you were waiting for us?"

Mr. D's frown grew as he said "Barnacle Beard wanted me to bring you to where the brat you think is the thief is as soon as you three arrived. Now follow me."

The god of wine stepped off the porch and began walking at a brisk pace towards the coliseum where most of the combat lessons were taught. Once there, Mr. D said "The brat's inside teaching the rest of his cabin mates. Now if you will excuse me, The finals of the national Pinochle tournament begin in twenty minutes. Chiron will be waiting for you at the Big House when you're done." His assigned task done, Mr. D began walking back to the Big House leaving the three of us alone outside of the coliseum.

Once the god was out of earshot, Annabeth said "Alright, how do you want to do this Percy?" As much as taking orders from a son of Poseidon irritated Annabeth on an unconscious level due to being a daughter of Athena, I had been right at the beginning of the quest and she was trying to put the rivalry between our parents out of the equation when it came to interacting with me. That plus the fact that the shinobi in front of her had a lot more experience than her meant that she was willing to follow my lead.

I considered her question for a moment. My original plan was to get Luke alone and go to town on the traitor before I placed him in the stasis seal in my notebook and give said seal to Chiron so that Luke could be sent to Olympus. The determined look in Annabeth's eyes though showed that she wanted to be involved in taking Luke down, something I could understand considering the history that was apparently between the two demigods. That in no way meant that I was going to let her fight Luke head on though. Not counting me Luke was the best swordsman in the camp, take away the experience difference that allowed me to use rather unorthodox methods and he was actually better than me. Of course, that was only because sword fighting hadn't been my forte back in the Elemental Nations, wind jutsu and sealing were, something Luke had no equivalents of in his arsenal. Add that into the equation and Luke was up shit creek without a paddle. Annabeth though didn't have that advantage so if she tried to go the direct approach she'd be demigod filet within a few minutes. Thankfully though, Annabeth had access to a magic item that would allow here to go another angle while I kept the traitor busy.

Plan of action now forming, I said "I'm going to form a barrier so that Luke can't escape. Grover, I want you to keep everyone else from Cabin Eleven from trying to break it or get someone else to do so. Annabeth I'm going to be blunt and say that considering how my spars with him went, in no shape or form do I want you to clash blades with Luke if he is armed, so you'll be using your invisibility hat. The first minute I am going to be using jutsu to hopefully end the fight quickly, but the fact we need Luke alive limits my repertoire to the low scale attacks. After that minute is up, while he is armed you will focus on his back while I keep his attention on me. You are only to attack his back, not his sides understood?"

Annabeth nodded understanding that I wanted to limit the danger she would be in as much as possible. I could tell it grated on her but I could also tell that she understood why I gave the orders I did. I nodded as well and the three of us entered the coliseum.

When we entered the coliseum we were met with the sight of Luke sparring with another member of Cabin Eleven with the others watching in the stands. Seeing this, I tapped Grover's shoulder and pointed to the stands. Grover nodded and walked over to stand in front of them. As he walked over to his position, I made nine clones, and walked over to the center of the coliseum, eight of the clones following. Once at the center, I gave the eight kunai with seal tags to the clones and they stabbed them into the ground to their hilts in the shape of a hundred foot wide octagon. Seeing that the barrier was ready, I pushed Annabeth to one of the kunai silently telling her to stand there. Once she was in place, I looked at the clone who was standing next to the spar that was still going on and nodded.

Seeing my nod, the clone gained an evil grin that once had Jounin running from my office happily abandoning whichever one of their students had managed to annoy me to their fate, their other two students safely tucked under their arms in order to get them out of the danger zone. Silently cackling, the clone rubbed his hands together before he walked to a spot behind Luke who currently had his blade in a lock with his opponent's. Said clone helped disengage the lock by proceeding to grab Luke's shoulder, spin him around, and slam his right knee into Luke's unprotected groin.

Me, my other eight clones, and Grover all proceeded to do the universal "OOOH!" and instinctively covered our own groins while Annabeth had a hand raised over her O shaped mouth with her eyes as wide as drachmas. Luke meanwhile was soundlessly singing soprano from the attack that seemed to him to literally come out of thin air. My clone wasn't done though yet and as Luke began to hunch over he took out his sealing notebook and unsealed what looked like a three foot long trout. My eyebrow rose as the clone proceeded to slap Luke in the face hard enough to snap Luke's back ramrod straight before he hunched down again as his right foot was stamped on. As Luke shouted in pain, my clone took a step back and his left foot began glowing as chakra surged through it. Taking a quick glance at where the octagon was to judge the distance, the clone then proceeded to slam his glowing foot into Luke's cheek which sent the traitor flying only to land in the center of the area. Despite myself, I was rather impressed with the guy considering he still had his sword in his hand after all that.

It must have been a very unusual sight for the rest of Cabin Eleven. Not being around when I cast the Genjutsu around me and my fellow questers, they had no way of seeing the three of us until I dropped said Genjutsu. To them, it simply looked like Luke for some reason spun around before he began trying to scream while grabbing his crotch before snapping ramrod straight, and then finally being sent flying by some invisible force.

PoV: Luke

If the spectators found the events of the past thirty seconds strange, I found it downright insane. I had just been sparring with one of the more promising members of my cabin when someone suddenly grabbed my shoulder and spun me around and kneed me in the groin. I had by reflex began to hunch up in an instinctive need to protect said organ when something large and scaly that I couldn't see was slapped into my face forcing my back straight. I had just enough time to register the fact that there was nothing in front of me before SOMETHING slammed down on my foot. And then SOMETHING else slammed into my face and sent my flying. I don't know how I kept my grip on Backbiter, but I was glad to still have it when I landed. Someone was going to be having a really bad day when I got through with whoever had the invisibility granting magic item, of that I was certain.

PoV: Percy/Naruto

When Luke rose from the crumpled heap that was his landing, there was a look in his eyes that said someone was ending up in the Intensive Care Unit of the nearest hospital. Too bad for him, his problems were only starting. As the clone that had the honor of starting the fight dispelled itself, I nodded to the clone closest to me on my right who nodded as well and placed his hands on the ground in front of the kunai before him and began channeling his chakra. While the clone prepared to activate the barrier, I made a gesture to Annabeth telling her to don her hat and dropped the Genjutsu when she did as I said "Having a bad day Luke?"

Luke spun around in shock and stared at me with wide eyes. At the same time, everyone in the stadium seats were startled as to their eyes Grover and I seemed to shimmer into existence. Luke frowned as he said "Percy, when did you get back from your quest? Actually, now that I think about it, how did you get to the west coast and back in only four days? And what's with the clones?"

I smirked and said "What can I say, when you're given twelve years to prepare for an unknown mission, you can make quite the support base." My smirk gained a bit of an evil look as I continued "But I don't want to talk about that. I'd rather talk about the fact that you seem to think it's alright to go steal the favorite toys of two of the elder gods."

Luke stiffened at my words before he jerked in surprise as the tags on the now revealed kunai all snapped into a straight edge position floating up as far as the strings would allow and a wall of blue chakra shot up behind me followed by seven others that completely enclosed us. As the last panel shot up into place, a ninth plate shimmered into existence fifty feet above us sealing us into the barrier. Luke looked at the barrier warily as he said "Percy, what are you doing?"

My eyes narrowed as I said "What does it look like Luke? I'm bringing in a traitor. I had a nice chat with my dad when I was returning Zeus' Master Bolt to him last night. He graciously granted me my request of being allowed to deal with you personally." My chakra began circulating faster as I slowly began using my Killing Intent. Taking a step forward, I said "You stealing from the elder gods always meant that you would be punished if caught, that is just common sense. But that stunt you pulled with those shoes of yours almost sent Grover straight into that infernal pit in the Underworld. And for that alone I'm going to enjoy making you wish that you could be put into a coma before I send you to my father."

Gesturing to the barrier around us, I said "See this barrier? I came up with it this morning. It prevents anything from going from point a to point b if said point is not within its area of affect. The only way to remove the barrier is to take one of the kunai out of the ground." I gained the same grin my clone had on his face as I said "Unfortunately for you, if anyone who wasn't the person to initiate the barrier tries to even touch one of the kunai, they get enough electricity sent through their bodies to knock an African elephant on their ass, so I wouldn't recommend you try it."

At my words, Luke's demeanor changed from that of a confused teenager to someone quite willing to commit murder as he said "Well then, I'll just have to force you to drop the barrier when I'm through with you." Shaking his head, Luke said "You know Percy, I had such high hopes for you. With your strength, you could easily have changed this world for the better. And yet you seem to have chosen the side of the gods. The same gods that you hold so much contempt for. Hypocritical much?"

I smirked as I took another step and said "Better them than Kronos Luke. That titan does not have this world's best interest in mind. It's rather unfortunate that you do not see this, which is why we are here right now. Now brace yourself!" My chakra erupted into a bonfire as I flashed through hand signs and shouted "Wind Style: Compress!" The blue bonfire surged outwards filling the air inside the barrier turning green in the second long process. And then the chakra compacted leaving Luke and I standing in a green fifty by fifty cube of chakra. Luke stiffened as the air pressure around us doubled making it feel like we were scuba diving even though we were in open air. In reverse, Annabeth was most likely feeling like she was hiking on a high mountain peak. The only one not really affected by the pressure change was me due to having used this jutsu plenty enough times to take someone who loved using speed down a notch or two to master the ability to unconsciously keep the pressure normal in a one inch shell around me.

I immediately took advantage of that fact. While Luke was struggling to understand why it was suddenly harder to get his lungs to work properly, I shot forward and grabbed Luke's wrist with my left hand hard enough to pinch a pressure point which forced Luke to reflexively drop his sword. At the same time my right hand came up and I full force back handed Luke's face snapping his head to the side and caused his body to be thrown to the side only for his right arm to go taut due to my left hand still around his wrist and a rather satisfying pop signified Luke's right shoulder dislocating. Luke's entire body jerked before he slammed onto the ground screaming bloody murder.

Unfortunately for Luke, I wasn't done yet. As Luke tried to instinctively get away from the one who caused him pain, I sent chakra through my right leg before I lifted it and slammed it into Luke's dislocated shoulder. Luke screamed even louder as the bones in his shoulder area shattered into tiny little pieces from the impact, effectively removing his primary arm out of the equation. Now sure that Luke wouldn't be at one hundred percent and thus much less of a threat to Annabeth, I jumped away from Luke and let the compression field drop normalizing the air pressure around us.

It had been tempting to just slap the stasis seal on Luke then and there but he hadn't suffered enough yet. The man had been ready to start a war, and had put Grover in serious danger. He deserved a lot more than a completely shattered shoulder in my opinion. Now that he couldn't use his predominant arm, the fight had just became that more one sided. As Luke struggled to his feet, I said "You done, or are you thirsty for more?"

Luke shot me a look of utter hatred as he snatched his blade up in his off hand. That look of hatred turned into one of scared shock as I made a gesture and green chakra exploded out of my hand forming a very large, very loudly shrieking mallet that was easily five feet wide and ten feet long. Grinning, I said "Ever played reverse whack a mole Luke?"

Luke paled at the look on my face before I swung the mallet down at him and a "Oh Shit!" look appeared on his face as he quickly dove to the side to avoid the large hammer. He paled even further when he saw how easily my wind mallet had sunk into the ground before I casually lifted it out of its hole. Still grinning, I said "Start running." I then shifted the mallet into a two handed grip and jumped at him swinging the mallet as I did at a downward diagonal angle to prevent Luke from ducking to avoid it. Luke jumped back out of the reach of the mallet before jumping back at me as soon as it passed intent on slicing me open while I was in what he assumed to be an off position.

That assumption flew in the face of the mallet changing into a normal chakra bo staff which I happily used to slap Luke in the side of the head with. As Luke sprung to his feet doing his best to ignore the pain the landing sent through his shattered shoulder, I spun the staff in my hands before putting it on my right shoulder and said "Full control of my chakra is such a wonderful thing. I could never make weapons out of chakra at this point in my first life. The only thing I could actually do in the chakra shape department was the Rasengan." The bo staff burst apart as I absorbed the chakra it was made out of. Seeing that I was temporarily without a weapon, Luke once again lunged at me only to slam into the far side of the barrier after I launched a Gale Palm at him.

As Luke once more got to his feet, I shook my head at him and said "Come not Luke, everyone holds you in such high esteem. Surely, you can do better. Here, I'll even give you a free shot."

I spread my arms out showing that I wouldn't make any moves and Luke growled at me as he began making his way over. As he did, I thought 'One last trick, then I get serious.' I was brought out of my thoughts when Luke sprinted towards me and sent an overhead swing down on my head with as much strength as he could muster. I sighed at such an obvious move and thought 'Well, I did give him a freebie.' The sword came down on my skull only to bounce off of my skin leaving only the smallest of cuts thanks to the condensed chakra I put in the area. Luke stumbled back with a look of shock on his face as I said "I cannot believe you just wasted a free shot like that Luke. I thought that you were a practical guy. I guess not, and unfortunately for you, I'm done playing games."

My Killing Intent sky rocketed as I pulled out one of my celestial kunai and I slammed the blade into Luke's hastily raised block. I could feel Luke's arm shaking through our locked blades as he struggled to maintain the lock with his off arm while I used my dominate arm with a small amount of chakra flowing through it to really make Luke sweat. Grinning at Luke, I said "Ares you are not kid." Proving my point, I twisted my kunai's blade around his and sent it downwards leaving his face wide open for the punch to the face that I launched that easily broke the traitor's nose.

Luke took a step back from the hit and I briefly felt like this fight was beyond overkill with me adding chakra into the mix for the first time in our spars before I punted that thought over a cliff with the thought that Luke was a traitor and so deserved every bit of it. I almost lazily deflected his retaliatory swing before I stepped into his guard and slammed my chakra augmented left fist into his diaphragm.

Luke's breathe left him in a whoosh of air and he stumbled back a bit before my snap round house kick to the chin broke his jaw as it sent him skyward and backwards before he slammed down onto his back ten feet from me. He quickly rolled to his left side and pushed himself up only for him to suddenly stiffen as a knife slashed into his back leaving a shallow but still painful cut going from his left shoulder to his right hip. Luke spun around with his sword swinging in a wide arc but only hit air. Turning back to glare at me, he struggled with his broken jaw to work well enough to say "How many clones did you bring in here and cover them with whatever you did to stay unnoticed?"

I snorted and said "What makes you think I'd tell you that?"'

Luke continued to glare at me only to yell in pain as he right arm was sliced into from the forearm down to the wrist. He quickly spun to attack his invisible attacker only to hit nothing but air again. As he did, I heard Annabeth quickly moving away to stand twenty feet away from us. I didn't give Luke a chance to recover from his wide swing and instead rushed the older teen and slammed my kunai hilt deep into the side of his left shoulder. Luke roared in pain as his off arm became as useless to him as his dominant and his sword dropped from now useless hands. I kicked his right knee out and Luke dropped to his knees before I hit him in the forehead with the ring of my kunai. Luke's eyes rolled to the back of his head and he fell backwards, out like a light.

I frowned down at his form and muttered "You deserve a lot worse traitor." Looking towards where I could hear Annabeth breathing, I said "He didn't nick you or anything did he?"

The air shimmered as she removed her Yankees cap and said "No, he didn't hit me." Coming to stand next to me, she looked down at Luke with a frown as she continued "You know, somehow I was expecting the fight to be a lot more interesting."

I snorted and said "Maybe if I had stuck with sword fighting like I normally did with him it would have. I never actually used chakra in our spars before though so he was rather woefully unprepared for it."

Annabeth gave a soft hum of agreement at that while I knelt down and place Luke into the stasis seal that had held Ares. Standing back up, I gave a nod to the clone that was facing me outside the barrier and the clone returned it as he stopped channeling chakra into the barrier. The blue walls faded away and the tags fell down from being affected by gravity once again as the clone pulled the kunai out of the ground and brought them back to me before dispelling.

Turning around to face the other members of Cabin Eleven, I saw them staring at me with uncertain looks. The barrier had hardly been sound proof so they had heard what I had said, but the fact that Luke was the thief and had tried to kill Grover was a real nasty shock to their system. Sighing, I crossed my arms and said "None of you are going to try attacking me in defense of that traitor are you?"

The people in front of me traded nervous glances before they all shook their heads at me. Nodding my own, I said "Good, now if you will excuse me, I have a traitor to give to Chiron." I began walking out of the coliseum and everybody followed me as I walked up to the Big House, the rest of Cabin Eleven asking Grover and Annabeth questions that they did their best to answer.

When we reached the Big House, Chiron was standing there in his centaur form waiting for us. He had a grim smile on his face as he said "Ah Percy, word of your successful quest has already begun to spread. Now, Mr. D said you knew who the thief was and already apprehended him?"

I nodded and slipped the paper holding the stasis seal to Chiron and said "Yes. Luke is currently inside this seal. When you give him over to dad all he has to do is rip the seal in half and it will release him from it."

Chiron nodded his understanding before he told us that he would be back within the hour. Then he galloped towards the hill before he seemed to blur away once he reached the top. I blinked at the sight wondering if all centaurs could run that fast before I shook my head and turned to head to cabin three, gesturing for Annabeth and Grover to follow.

When I reached the cabin I waved the two in before I dropped onto my bed with a heavy sigh and looked at the ceiling for a bit. Grover and Annabeth both chose a bed to sit on as they waited for me to say something.

Sighing again, I said "Our quest may be over guys but our problems have only just begun. If there is one thing that the legends say about Kronos, it's that he has no problems bringing about new eras. Something tells me though that this world will not be able to survive another Golden Age." Sitting up, I looked at the two and said "We may have prevented one war, but another attempt is sure to be on the horizon. Can I count on you two to help me when the time comes?"

"Always." Grover said and Annabeth nodded as well as she said "You have my support Percy Jackson. This I swear on my name and blood."

I nodded my thanks before I closed my eyes and thought 'Our problems have only just begun, but at least I'll be having help when the cards are thrown down. I just hope I don't have to deal with anything like the Juubi again.' Opening my eyes again, I leaned forward with a grin forming as I said "Well if you guys are going to be my side, I'm going to have to get your combat skills up to snuff by the end of the summer. And there's no better time to start than now. I suggest you two prepare yourselves, because from now on for the next two months, I'm going to be pounding some skills into those skulls of yours. You two won't so much as eat, sleep, or scratch your bums without my say so. "

Grover and Annabeth both leaned back at the sight of my grin and words before they traded a look with each other that clearly asked just what they had gotten themselves into. My grin grew at the sight before I stood up and began walking out of the cabin calling over my shoulder "Let's go guys, I've got some ideas I'd like to try." 'Oh, those two are going to be so sore tomorrow.' I cackled evilly at the thought and the two following me like they were now heading to the gallows paled even further. Meanwhile, my grin stayed firmly on my face as I thought 'It's good to be the teacher.'

Story End (For Now)

Author's Note: Sorry this is a day late, we've currently got a massive ice storm taking up residency in the south eastern part of the US and my computer wasn't happy about it. Well, this is the last chapter, It might end a little quickly but I thought it will set a good tone for the next book when I start to work on it. On another note, any of you guys recognize the three movies I quoted?