Hey there!

So I know that the previous chapter might not have been agreeable to everyone's tastes, but it was more of a filler chapter anyways. We'll get back into the action from this chapter onwards. Also, I've thought about the Roman aspect of PJ Universe, and decided that I'd be missing out on a lot of fun if I decide to completely omit it. I had a lot of fun reading House of Hades and I'll include that aspect too, but expect it to come much later into the story, since I'll have Naruto go through the original 5 books' events first.

Major thanks to to2llyuntraceable for beta'ing this chapter. He's been a major help and I'm working with him and AgresteBug who has also been very helpful in addressing a lot of issues with the earlier chapters. I'm currently under the process of rewriting them, so expect delayed chapters.

Review Responses:

DemonKaiser : I took your idea, thought a bit about it, and dedicated a long-ass scene to it after changing it up just a bit. Hope you like reading it :p

gazz uzumaki : That'll be answered further on.

Aion27 : In the words of another reviewer, 'Rhea is a grandmother and acts like it', which is what made me remove her from the list.

As Naruto made his way towards his college, he reflected on for the second time in the morning at the uncanny feeling that he was being watched. He could not exactly point out what it was, but it was certainly very unsettling.

Shrugging it off as paranoia and to the thought that he would deal with it once it became a real problem, Naruto decided not to spoil this pleasant morning by making the effort to search around for whatever, or whoever, was watching him. He had better things to mull over. Such as the equally pleasant happenings of the previous night.

While the blonde was jumbled up in his thoughts, Kurama could not deny the certain amount of pride welling up inside him. No matter how much trouble fate put them through, there were certain times when it was inexplicably generous.

'I can hear you, you know.'

"Kid, the simultaneous amount of good and bad luck you seem to have never fails in astounding me." Kurama said to Naruto with a hint of amusement in his voice.

'What? You'd rather have me swimming in the shit whirlpool of bad luck forever?' Naruto asked sharply.

"When that is clearly where you belong, yes." Kurama replied with a shameless grin.

'Shut up, Kurama.'

As he walked to class, he smiled at quite a good number of fellow students he knew, and nodded to the few teachers in the corridors. A few good mornings were muttered and a couple of high-fives were exchanged, and Naruto entered his classroom.

He had actually gotten admission into a college. It was not a major university of any sort, just a little community college he had gotten himself into. The studying costs weren't outrageous, and you tended not to gain much outside attention in such colleges. Since the entry process into a major university was carried out on various levels, it was generally harder to convince examiners and interviewers that you weren't an ancient being and had simple required documents such as a birth certificate and a high school diploma using a couple of neat genjutsu from your Sharingan.

He was pursuing a degree in international law. He had chosen this particular subject as he curious to know the workings of the modern world and there was no better option to learn everything about the structure of a state other than studying the legal framework it is governed by. Naruto also had his own personal interest in legal studies, and he could dare say that he was quite well versed with the concept and how it worked, having been the Hokage.

Being the leader of your own military village required extensive legal knowledge, and a grasp of the rules used to administer it, after all. Although he had to admit, Naruto's interest lied far more in breaking said rules, but that was a different matter altogether.

He dropped his bag down to his usual seat near the back of the classroom, just beside a large window. This seat was very useful for a wide range of activities. They included, but were not limited to, sleeping, day dreaming, pretending to pay attention, subtly flirting with some of the newer female teachers and tinkering with highly explosive paper tags safely out of the reach of the strict eyes of the professors. Simple things like that.

The girl sitting in front of him, Wendy was a chubby, self-deprecating girl who essentially functioned in a manner that air did. That is to say, she managed to lurk around everywhere without bringing any attention to herself. It was not because of Wendy's unparalleled skills in stealth.

No, it was because she was very self-conscious and shy.

Also, she probably was the only girl in the whole college who Naruto got along with. Naruto appreciated that kind of presence, it was the least bothersome to deal with. She was the first girl he had met in the college on his first day, and knowing nothing about how colleges worked, Wendy had been a major help. Although, she had been highly suspicious of some of the simpler stuff that Naruto had no idea about, they had befriended each other quickly and she had just gotten used to the fact that he could be unusually strange at times.

Class hadn't started yet when Wendy turned her head back and looked at Naruto with her eyebrows raised.

Naruto raised his own eyebrows and stared right back at her.

After about 30 seconds, he gave up and asked, "What?"

"You hear about that new hot substitute teacher who'll be taking over our classes during the first period?" She asked after putting on a little show of looking proud of her victory in their little staring contest.

Naruto shook his head, and asked, "Guy or girl?"

Wendy rolled her eyes, "Why would I be telling you this if she was a guy?"

Naruto looked at her with an inquiring look, "And why are you telling me this even is she's not a he?"

"So you don't try to flirt with her in the middle of class, obviously."

Naruto looked offended and put his head between his hands, pretending to sleep on his desk.

"Where have you been anyways? I know you don't have the best attendance record, but this was quite a long disappearance, even for you." Wendy asked poking his unruly blonde hair with her finger.

"Well, at least I haven't been doing this!" Naruto said as he took his head off the desk while holding up his phone, which displayed a tweet of Wendy's on it. It read:

"No more self-deprecating tweets," I whisper fatly.

Wendy went red and promptly looked ahead. Naruto grinned. She wouldn't be annoying him for quite a while now. As he prepared to enter a state of brief hibernation, the door to the class opened and in walked a tall, curvaceous woman with long red hair and purple eyes.

She smiled sweetly.

"Good morning class," she said, in the same husky tone Naruto heard the night before.

The boys of the whole class were paralyzed, their mouths hung open and their limp tongues out as they drooled over their laptops and textbooks on their desks.

The woman seductively grabbed a boy's chin who was sitting on the front seat and pushed it upwards, closing his gaping mouth. She then continued, "Since your regular professor will be absent for a while, I will be taking over Emerging International Principles today as a substitution teacher."

She was wearing a short, tight black pencil skirt that exposed her creamy, long legs as she sat on the professor's desk, one knee over the other and continued, "You all may call me Dite. Or ma'am. I don't really have any preferences."

"How does babe sound?" A male voice shouted from somewhere in the middle of the seated students, and the whole class broke out in light laughter, with the substitution teacher laughing along.

Meanwhile, Naruto's mind was a racetrack for various thoughts that were zooming around in his head.

'She could just be trying to get close to me, but I don't think that's it,' He thought to himself, and then reached a realization.

'She's here for answers.'

His actions the previous night were bound to have put the pretty red-head into quite the interesting flurry of questions.

After introductions were done and she had established a light rapport with the class, she started, "So, we will be having a short introductory session where I will be briefly familiarizing you about the principle we'll study about today, which is: Responsibility to Protect. It is also casually referred to as the R2P, which is an emerging global political commitment endorsed by all UN Member States. Is anyone already familiar with the principle and would maybe wish to enlighten the class?"

No hands were raised, except Wendy's.

But the teacher was far more interested in the smiling blonde looking right at her behind Wendy.

"Perhaps, you would wish to try and answer?" She asked while walking over to Naruto's desk, hips swaying while she completely ignored Wendy's raised upright hand.

Wendy muttered, "Bitch," softly in light annoyance.

As she crossed desks to make her way towards the last row, every male's heads turned in perfect symphony, eyes glued to the substitute professor's posterior.

She put her fingers on Naruto's desk and raised an eyebrow.

Naruto sighed. He did not know why she was back here again. The fact that she had asked the class to refer to her as Dite all but confirmed his suspicions that the woman was in fact Aphrodite, the Greek Goddess of Love.

From what he had heard and read, Aphrodite rarely extended relations to anything more than one night stands. Approaching him again went quite against what he had assumed Aphrodite's nature to be. It wasn't a coincidence that Aphrodite was his professor. Whatever her motives might be for returning, he would do his best to find out what they were.

Or maybe he was just overthinking, and she had loved the Naruto slice way too much to resist a second serving.

"Be wary, kid. You know nothing about what these Olympians want of you. It wouldn't do if you were careless and ended up landing yourself and me in a mess that is hard to get out of." Kurama warned, set off by the reappearance of the beautiful goddess.

'I know, furball. You need not lecture me on wariness. Giving any hints that I suspect something wrong would only motivate them to be more careful, which would only make things harder for us. Although it does seem that she doesn't care whether I realize it's her or not.'

Aphrodite's eyebrows arched even further, and she reiterated her question.

Naruto just sighed again and replied, "It is an international commitment where the states' are obliged to employ protection against unexpected or undesirable events that jeopardize their people's safety and expose them to the risk of human rights violations."

"Precisely correct. And what would be the result, of such an unexpected event when protection is not employed?" She asked, now sitting on his desk, her soft thighs inches away from his face.

Naruto looked confused, "Well, an unexpected event will lead to an expected outcome, obviously, which in this case would be serious violations of human rights."

"Precisely correct, again. You're quite smart. So what should one do, when this expected outcome doesn't take place after an unexpected event during which no protection was used?" Aphrodite asked again, this time with emphasis.

'Ah, so that is what this is about.'

"What is it?" Kurama asked out of curiosity. He had been listening to the conversation, but most of it was going over his head.

'C'mon furball, I know you're smarter than that. She's asking why she isn't pregnant after the unexpected events of the previous night.' Naruto grinned, and Kurama let out a loud laugh.

"And here we were, all but drowning in our paranoia." He managed to say and let out another throaty laugh.

'Your paranoia. Not mine.' Naruto corrected smugly and then looked at the sexy teacher sitting on his desk.

"Well, in such cases, one should just place their faith in the other and their capabilities to prevent such expected outcomes even without protection." The blonde said with a cheeky grin.

Aphrodite was more confused than ever, and then voiced a genuine question, "Would this then hint at the other's impotency in producing these expected outcomes?"

Kurama all but roared with laughter again in Naruto mind.

"The Great Seventh Hokage…of the Village Hidden in The Leaves…t-the only living True Sage in the World…Naruto fucking Namikaze is impotent." Kurama said between laughs, and then burst out laughing once again.

Naruto sighed in pain, already predicting the embarrassing insults that Kurama would direct at him in the future from this singular event. He looked at the goddess on his desk with his eyebrow twitching frantically.

"No. Hell no. The only thing it hints at is the ability of the other to decide whether they want these expected outcomes to be produced or not."

Aphrodite was the pure epitome of confusion by now. Apart from the Olympians and some other select gods and goddesses, she knew of no other people who could control whether or not their gamete would produce an heir or not. Being the goddess of love, she precisely knew when her ovulation cycle was, and her 'fertile window' had been very open, so to say.

She did not want a kid from Naruto, but it had come as quite the surprise to her when she realized that she wasn't going to get pregnant to begin with.

She voiced her doubts again, "And how would one come about with acquiring these abilities?"

"If it was such common knowledge, then any sort of protection wouldn't be required in the world to begin with." Naruto replied with that annoying grin of his. Some jutsus were just way too useful, such as the No-Pregnancy No Jutsu. The bell rang right on cue a second later, signaling the end of the introductory session.

Aphrodite huffed with a cute pout and made her way out of the class, the boys heads' turning in perfect sync, following the swaying hips of their new professor once again as she walked out.

As soon as she was out, their heads snapped to Naruto, wondering what the hell had just transpired.

But Naruto had something else to focus on, as the sensation that he was being watched returned. He had initially credited that to Aphrodite who might have been watching him as well, but the fact that the sensation was still there as the goddess was walking right out the door bore proof against that line of thought.

That was when he came to realize that Aphrodite might not even had any intention to be spying on him, and might just have been after him for sex. It made quite a lot of sense when he thought about the myths surrounding her, which generally started with her wanting to have sex with someone and ending with her having sex with that someone. Well, there was also the part of the person she had sex with facing the consequences of the intercourse, which usually tended to be quite unfavorable for the said person. But we won't talk about that.

Recognizing that Aphrodite was not the threat here, and might not even have the potential to be a threat, he decided to focus on what could.

When he had previously felt the sensation on a busy New York road, he hadn't been able to exactly determine where it stemmed from, his senses hampered by the tall buildings and the noise of the morning traffic. Now that he was sitting in a quiet college classroom, he could pinpoint the exact location of whatever was watching him.

And as he turned his head to look out the window and towards the little sugar maple tree outside the window, he was surprised to find an owl seated there.

Even more curious than the presence of a little owl in New York City, was the uncanny manner in which it was staring right at him.

"Should I suppose you've got a letter from a magic school for me?" he said to himself softly.

The owl just tilted its head, as if it did not find the blonde's joke funny.

A little creeped out, Naruto muttered, "I'll, uh, just leave you to it then."

As the day passed, no matter where he went, he could feel the small avian's eyes on him at all times. At the end of the day, he was so annoyed that he was seriously contemplating bloody murder. Even if it was just a bird.

A few minutes before the last period was to come to an end, deciding that he'd had enough, Naruto pulled out a senbon from the inner layer of his shirt sleeve and flicked it at the owl in a quick, unnoticeable, fluid motion.

The senbon sailed through the classroom window towards the tree on which the owl was perched upon, softly embedding itself in the owl's feet. A split second later, the bird dropped from the branch it was on, unmoving. Paralyzing with senbons never got old.

He was going to wait for a few minutes for the day to be over, and hidden from everyone, he would've gone and picked the bird up to examine if there was something wrong with it or if he could find some sort of clue as to why he was being watched. But surprising him yet again, the owl's body started glowing in a dim, yellowish glow and its body slowly faded away into nothingness.

"Welp kid, that's too bad." Kurama commented.

'True, but at least now we know that it was not a normal owl. There was a divine hand behind this.'

"A divine hand is a possibility, as is the hand of something more sinister."

'Why do you insist on being so negative, dammit?' Naruto cursed in his mind, earning himself a grin from his tenant.

Now that Naruto knew that the owl was not some brain-dead avian hell-bent on annoying the shit out of him and had a more supernatural nature, he could annoy Chiron into providing him the information about who could've been behind the strangely-observant owl.

His irritation at being monitored was sort of an acquired shinobi personality perk. No ninja can sit still knowing that someone is watching them.

"You intend on going back there?" Kurama asked with a raised eyebrow.

'Yes, I don't see a reason of why I shouldn't.' Naruto replied as he packed up his bag and got up to leave the college. The bell had rung and the dispersal had begun.

"That place is growing on you," Kurama said in a warning tone, "You know as well as I do that involving yourself deeper will have adverse consequences."

'There you go with the negativity again.' Naruto sighed as he ran a hand through his golden locks, 'Besides, when have we ever been the people to step back because of probable 'adverse consequences'?'

Kurama said nothing, but a smile could be seen gracing his vulpine features as he prepared to slumber once more.

Naruto emerged on the back of Sasuke from the shadow of a tree just outside the Camp borders, since the hellhound seemed to be unable to get through them.

As Sasuke sniffled with his tail limply fallen down in the utmost expression of sadness, Naruto took some pity in his unusual companion, "It's okay, Sasuke. Apparently monsters cannot go through the Camp borders."

Sasuke recoiled as if struck and lowered his head down, seemingly losing any conscious voluntary control of his tail as it hung there lifelessly.

"I think I made it worse, didn't I?" Naruto said apologetically with a sheepish smile, "You're not a monster, Sasuke. It was just a bad choice of words."

The hellhound looked up with eyes literally shining with hope.

"Still not getting you any cats to eat."

Sasuke sniffled even louder, shot Naruto a betrayed glare, and jumped back into a shadow.

As he made his way towards the Big House in the evening breeze, he could hear a tense shuffling of hooves from inside one of the rooms. Never being one to care much about things like basic courtesy and manners, Naruto walked from the Deck and entered the Rec Room, where traditionally the cabin meetings were held.

Inside, Chiron could be seen frantically pacing the room, tension and stress evident on his face. He didn't seem to notice Naruto at first, but when he did, he momentarily paused his pacing for a moment and just stopped. He stared a Naruto for around 15 seconds, and then seemed to light up like a Christmas tree.

Before he even opened his mouth to speak, Naruto beat him to it.

"Whatever brilliant plan you came up with in your head," he began, "Leave me out of it."

However, Chiron seemed unaffected by the blonde's statement, and continued to smile before he gestured to a little stool. Chiron knew Naruto enough by now to know that even if he pretended to not care, if it came to helping someone out, he would be one of the first people to hold out his hand.

Naruto sat with a raised eyebrow, resting his hands on the ping-pong table, as Chiron began with the annoying smile still on his face, "Welcome, Naruto. I wasn't expecting to see you here so soon."

Naruto rubbed his temples in a show of uncaringness as he replied, "Well, neither was I. I would've said it is a pleasure to see you again, if it was."

The old centaur looked at him, "I heard about your victory against Gration. You have been very helpful to Olympus, Naruto. The gods might now show it, or know it, but Olympus is grateful." He said, his eyes gaining a mature, apologetic shade, perhaps for the gods who seemed to lack the word 'gratefulness' in their personality dictionaries.

The whiskered man shook his head slightly, "I don't do things for gratitude, old man. I do them because I want to."

Chiron nodded in understanding and turned around and started arranging some of the bronze shields laid down on a table in the corner, "Very well, then. So to what do I owe your visit to, then?"

"Well, there was a certain matter relating to a certain event, which has left me terribly confused," Naruto began, and then continued hesitantly, "A certain event that I feel your expertise in Greek mythology might shed light on."

"So you need my help?"

Naruto hesitated again, as if what he was going to say was physically straining his larynx in forming the words, and he just said, "Yes."

There had been a time when asking for help came naturally to Naruto, but after being alone for countless decades, you get used to rolling on your own, and recognizing that you cannot do something on your own becomes something quite difficult to admit.

Chiron, without turning back, said, "Practically, I am Greek mythology as well. However, something being a myth implies that it has a high probability of being false. So please, refer to it as Greek history."

Chiron might be a horse-human hybrid, but he was still a teacher, Naruto reminded himself. He said in an exasperated tone, "Yes, call it whatever you want to. I still need your help regarding a little something."

Chiron turned back around to face the blonde and trotted a few steps over to him, "Very well then. Ask away."

"Well, there was this certain little owl…" Naruto began, and told him of the events surrounding the strange owl.

As Naruto had been telling the story, Chiron's smile seemed to be getting wider by each passing second.

Naruto's eyebrow was simultaneously increasing its twitching pace as well, "Remember a joke, old man?"

Chiron's smile widened still and his eyes glinted in a dangerous manner, "It would seem that I have exactly the answer you're looking for, Naruto."

It was the perfect plan, and Naruto had arrived at the perfect time. He had been guilty about sending the Athena kids on that quest from before he even sent them, but you could not just refuse a quest demanded by an Olympian herself. He knew there was something off about it, despite its seeming simplicity for one belonging to the Athena cabin. The three he had decided on sending were practically the best of the bunch, and yet Chiron was not sure if they were ready.

And now it had been over eight days since they had returned. Going by the plan Chiron had initially formulated with the three, they should've been back in just four. Chiron's gut said that something had gone horribly wrong, something that he had anticipated but disregarded. And now the guilt of the fact that he might as well have sent the children off to their graves because of this disregard was eating away at his old, fragile heart.

He had been desperately trying to decide who to send as a rescue backup team and had been failing to come up with a name other than Luke Castellan, someone who was away on his own quest for the Golden Apple of the Hesperides. Then barging in through the door came Naruto Namikaze.

And what's even more interesting, was the fact that he seemed to be on Lady Athena's radar.

This was the perfect opportunity to manipulate the blonde, or gently push him in the right direction as Chiron would like to call it, into agreeing to go as the backbone of the backup squad.

Chiron had heard of Naruto's unparalleled skill in the fight against Gration. Despite having seen him literally manhandle Artemis's Lieutenant, he was still quite surprised by the news, since fighting a huntress, regardless of how skilled said huntress is, was still exponentially easier than fighting a giant of the Gigantomachy. But he wasn't complaining. He knew the kid had a good heart.

And what's more was the little inkling in the back of his head that the blonde still had a lot to surprise them with.

He was the perfect man for the job, and it was the perfect time to get him to do it.

Naruto interrupted his musings, "Well then, out with it, old man. I don't have time to be sitting around and looking at you clean bronze plates."

Chiron chose not to comment on the misinterpretation of the shields as plates, but rather said, "It would seem that you've managed to intrigue Lady Athena as well. The owl that you describe? It is a symbol of the Olympian Goddess of Wisdom."

Naruto's eyebrows furrowed in thought, as he muttered to himself, "Maybe not so wise if she's intent on setting me off."

"Could you repeat that, Naruto? I couldn't quite hear you." Chiron asked politely, but Naruto just shook his head, "It was nothing, old man."

Chiron nodded before beginning again, "And if you really did throw a pointy – What did you call it again? A senporn?"

Naruto looked at Chiron as if he had grown a second head. Like having a horse for half your body wasn't weird enough.

"How do you even go from senbon to…No, wait. Never mind. I wouldn't even want to think about the kind of porn you might like to watch." Naruto commented.

Chiron looked confused for a moment, "What is porn?"

Naruto just shook his head in disappointment and grave sympathy, but gestured to Chiron to put the topic off.

"Right. So, if you really did attack the owl with a 'senbon', it would be safe to assume that Athena might not be very pleased with you." The centaur said, looking carefully at Naruto, who seemed largely unaffected by his words.

"Careful, Naruto. Athena is someone you would NOT want as an enemy." Chiron warned.

Naruto nodded, before getting up from the stool and stepping away from the ping-pong table and said, "Perfect. Thank you for your enlightening words, and your help. Just one more question, and I'll be well on my way."

The centaur trotted a few steps towards the stool, as he gestured to Naruto to go on.

"Where might I find, this…Athena?"

Chiron had been expecting exactly this. Hiding his internal glee, he said, "Locating an Olympian can be difficult, Naruto. One place you're certain to find them is Mount Olympus…"

"Isn't that on top of the Empire State Building?" Naruto interrupted, voicing his query. From what he had learned so far by involving himself in the unknown, hidden aspect of the divine powers governing the world, they each had various duties and responsibilities. They usually roamed around the earth but were also capable of existing at multiple places at the same time. Their central seat, or rather headquarters of sorts, was Mount Olympus.

Apparently, it was what bound their 'essence' to the earth, and the modern civilization, and kept them from fading, but that was one concept Naruto had a lot of trouble warping his head around and still couldn't quite comprehend.

It was supposed to be suspended over the Empire State Building. How a whole mountain just floats above one of the tallest buildings of the world unseen by almost everyone, you ask? Well, that was another concept that went right over his head.

Chiron nodded, "Indeed, it is present over the Empire State Building, which makes it ridiculously easy to get to if you know how. But going to Mount Olympus, uninvited and barging in onto the Olympian's Palaces would surely have adverse consequences of its own."

Naruto sighed, "So it's a no-no?"

Chiron affirmed, "Yes. It is a 'no-no'."

"Then how do I find her?"

Chiron turned around and walked over to a window over-looking the Camp, his hooves making a distinct 'clip-clop' sound as they hit the wooden floor. This was going exactly how he had wanted it to go.

"Well, there is a certain place where you'll surely encounter Lady Athena at this point in time. However, say you do find her. What'll you do then?" Chiron asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Express my displeasure at being watched and then ask her the reason for the same, of course," Naruto shrugged as if it was the most obvious thing ever, and then asked, "Where is this certain place, again?"

"Even if you do find her, I doubt she'll provide you with answers just because you demand them from her. And the Goddess of Wisdom is not as…lenient as Dionysus, Naruto. Most other Olympians aren't, and they won't take kindly to being teased."

Naruto sat back down on the seating stool and dropped his head on the ping-pong table, asking with a defeated sigh, "What do you propose I do then?"

Even though he had a pretty good inkling as to why he was being supervised, he still had to set down a few ground rules if he was to co-exist with these divine beings. One such essential rule was respecting his privacy.

And anyways, he was never one to leave the ball in his court. The Goddess of Wisdom was a score ahead of him since she had him continuously supervised. It was time to return the favour. And Naruto tended to not pass the ball, but rather tear through the net and walk into the other court himself to firmly deposit the ball so it wasn't thrown again.

"Resorting to the more traditional methods would be needed. A favour for a favour. Aid the Goddess in some manner, and she'd be obliged to answer any questions you have for her. There is no other Olympian more responsible about their obligations than Lady Athena." Chiron said.

Naruto lifted his head from the ping-pong table to look at Chiron and asked, "And how do I do that?"

Chiron looked away from the window, and towards Naruto, "There was a certain quest, given by Lady Athena herself, to retrieve a certain artefact for her. I sent three of her most capable children to complete the quest over a week ago, but they have yet to return."

Naruto did not miss the guilt evident in Chiron's voice as he continued, "I fear that something ill might have befallen them. Venture to the location of the quest, and see it through. Rescue the kids if they need rescuing and provide back-up if they need it. The goddess will be indebted to you if you succeed. And the island where the artefact is located, you'll surely meet Lady Athena there, or communicate with her in some form. And you'll get whatever answers you seek."

Naruto couldn't help but control his smile at the cunningness of the old centaur, "Very smart, Chiron. Get me to effectively clean up after your mess while masterfully exploiting what I plan on doing."

Chiron was afraid for just a moment that the blonde might refuse to see the quest through as he saw Naruto think upon what he had said.

"Very well, then. I will run this little errand for you, but god help the entire centaur race if I haven't had a nice chat with Athena at the end of this."

And just like that, his fears were washed away. He had hit two birds with one stone. Naruto going on the quest would mean that both the artefact would be recovered and the kids would be saved as well. All that was left to do was pair Naruto up with two others to aid him in his quest, since Naruto's knowledge about Greek mythology was questionable at best.

Since it was an Athenian quest, being a child of Athena would be an obvious prerequisite to qualify as a potential team member. No matter how hard he tried to come up with a different name, Annabeth Chase was undeniably the perfect choice. Chiron was aware that she was way too young to be going on a quest, but even at the age of 10, she was one of Athena's brightest, and the most well-versed with Greek mythology and history.

And the other member would obviously have to be a satyr, for their excellent sense of smell might come in handy at any given point in the quest. But the problem was that there was only one other satyr available at Camp. Since it wasn't the holidays or the summer vacations, only the year-round kids were present and all satyrs except one were out searching for demigods to bring back to the Camp.

And that was Grover Underwood.

Chiron was acutely aware of how young both Annabeth and Grover were to go on this quest. He had no doubts of their ability, but he did not want a repetition of what had occurred just eight days ago, when he had sent three demigods who weren't ready on the same quest.

And yet, just the fact that Naruto would be present along with Annabeth and Grover was enough reassurance for him. Chiron was sure, or at least surely hoped, that the blonde would not let any harm come to both of them. He also did not want them weighing Naruto down, but he had no choice but to send them along with him, since without Annabeth's knowledge of mythologies and Grover's prowess in tracking and sniffing things out, the tall youth would essentially be crippled.

"Before I set out on this 'quest'," Naruto asked, "What is it about?"

Chiron arrived at his decision, and said, "I'll be pairing you up with two others. They'll brief you about the quest on the way to the location of the artefact. Best we not waste any more time."

Naruto's eyebrows rose, "Two others?"

Chiron explained, "In quests, knowledge of mythology and history and how to distinguish between them, is very important, since over half of the time demigods come across enemies that have already been defeated in the past. As such, knowing history reveals some essential key weaknesses many foes have, and helps solve many puzzles."

Naruto nodded in understanding, "And since I don't know jack-shit about Greek myths, you'll be pairing me up with two history guides?"

Chiron started trotting out the door of the Rec Room with Naruto following after him, and said, "Not two. Your other teammate will be a satyr, because of their innate connection with nature, and their hypersensitive tracking abilities and sense of smell."

Naruto nodded in appreciation. It was a good team dynamic. It looked like he might as well be able to have some fun doing this tedious assignment.

"Get everything you need, Naruto, and meet me at the northern-most edge of Zephyros creek, where it meets the Long Island Sound in two hours. That is where your quest will begin."

Naruto nodded, and begin to walk towards the exit of Camp Half-Blood. As he plucked a strawberry from the strawberry fields, annoying a nature spirit, he couldn't disregard the certain feeling of nostalgia as he thought back to the days when he used to receive his own missions from his Hokage.

The backpack that he carried to college was slung over his shoulders, but it wasn't filled with books this time. Everything that a traditional shinobi needed on their travels was packed in. The essentials were there : the scrolls, seals, kunai and shuriken. Other handy items such as a little bottle of sake and a Nintendo Switch were also put in the bag.

Some items such as the Kubikiribōchō that just would not fit in the backpack were sealed. He still had no idea why he carried the sword that belonged originally to Zabuza though. It was fun to swing a sword larger than you were sometimes, but he much preferred smaller blades, such as his Endeixi.

Naruto almost felt like the hyperactive 13 year old Naruto Uzumaki as he had packed for his first mission outside Konoha, to the Land of the Waves. Even though he had only packed two cups of instant ramen instead of ninja gear, it still counted as readying up for a mission, he remembered wistfully

How much the times had changed since then. How much he had changed.

The leaves crunched under his feet as he walked the dirt path through the Camp's woods towards the junction where the creek met Long Island Sound, and where Chiron and his teammates were supposed to be waiting.

When he stepped out the forest and into the little shore, he had expected to see two demigods around his age, possibly quite buff and carrying all sorts of ancient Greek weapons, shields, and deadly artefacts.

Instead he got two kids that barely reached his shoulders. One girl he recognized as the one who had escorted him to Argus' van when he was leaving from the Camp a while before. She was carrying a bag a little too large for her and was wearing a few extra layers of clothes, and a leather cuirass over all of it, so she looked like an armored baby snowman. Despite this, her careful and observant eyes seemed way more mature than any girl who looked to be around 10.

Then there was the goat. All he was carrying was a little set of small reed pipes that were stuffed into the back pocket of his pants, his presumably hairy behind on prominent display as he bent over to try and stuff his hooves into some sneakers.

Chiron was standing right beside him, watching with amusement. As soon as he noticed Naruto approaching, he trotted on over to him and tried to introduce him to the kids.

"Annabeth, Grover, this is Naruto."

Chiron was going to say something else but Annabeth beat him to it, "Yes, we know Chiron. He'll be leading our quest."

The way she said 'our quest' displayed some amount of pride and happiness in those stormy eyes of hers.

But Chiron was ever-present to keep that in check, "Now, Annabeth. As I have told you before: It isn't 'your' quest. Its Naruto's quest, and you'll just be there to observe and help Naruto out when he asks for it. Only, when he asks for it."

At the side, Grover was doing a poor imitation of Chiron while mouthing exactly what he was saying in a manner that suggested he had already heard it multiple times before. Chiron's eyes drifted over to where Grover was standing and imitating him and upon realizing that he had been caught, the satyr bleated loudly and then coughed in embarrassment , and went back to trying to stuff his hooves into the shoes.

Naruto's eyes twitched in mild-irritation, "So I get an armored Inuit and a goat that thinks he's funny. Yep, this was all that I needed for my first and supposedly dangerous quest."

Annabeth looked mildly irritated at being called an Inuit and Grover just blushed in embarrassment and tried to look as if he hadn't heard what Naruto said.

Chiron meanwhile, had been expecting this, "Don't you go around questioning me, young man, with your inferior knowledge of Greek mythology and no perception of what you might face on your quest."

Naruto looked offended, as if doubting his awareness about Greek myths was some sort of a personal insult, "You don't get to say that, old man. You don't know what I know and do not know! I might as well have done some homework and researched a bit about your mythology!"

Chiron wasn't one to back down, and neither was he used to having his decisions questioned, so he decided to actually test the blonde's claim, "All right, then. Who was Zeus's father?"

Naruto sputtered incoherent words as if trying to form a meaningful word that made no sense and just ended it with a "eus."

Then he made a show of looking quite smug, and said, "See? I know it after all."

"That made no sense whatsoever!" Annabeth shouted in exasperation, "And you even got the last part wrong!"

Naruto just scratched his head, "I thought all Greek names end with something like 'ius' or 'eus'?"

Annabeth face palmed and decided to enlighten the blonde, who seemed well around a foot taller than her, "His name is Kronos. So it technically ends with 'os'."

Naruto gritted his teeth, "Damn! I was so close too!"

Chiron looked on in amusement, and said, "You get along pretty well already. But evidently, you don't know 'jack-shit' about Greek mythology as you previously put it. So, Annabeth will be tagging along with you because she is almost like a walking encyclopedia."

Naruto looked at both of their faces, "You guys haven't heard of Google?"

Both of them looked at him as if he was some sort of a talking monkey who had no sense of civilization.

"What? I come across a monster I don't know about, I just type in its name in Google followed by a little 'how did it die in Greek myths', and bam! I'm good to go."

Chiron nodded in agreement as if he was completely convinced by what Naruto was saying, and said, "That's all well and good. But cell phones are like portable beacons to monsters. Nothing warns a monster about a demigod presence better than a cell-phone signal. So no demigod carries them around, and neither should you, because your cellphone could be dangerous because of its proximity to Annabeth and Grover."

Naruto sighed in disappointment and muttered, "So does this mean I won't be able to Netflix while on the quest?"

Chiron nodded and then said, "Also, how do you propose to find a signal in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea?"

Naruto looked surprised.

"We're going to the Mediterranean?!"

Annabeth looked at him in mild surprise, and then her eyes shifted over to Chiron in an inquiring look.

The centaur just nodded to her and muttered a small, "Yep, that's why you're going. He has no idea about the quest, and you need to hold his hand though it."

Naruto still wasn't over his initial shock, "Isn't that something like 20,000 kilometers away?"

Annabeth sighed, "No, it's not that far. That is literally half of Earth's total circumference. It's just around 7,945 kilometers away from here." She said, sounding quite pleased with herself, as if knowing that particular bit of information was an achievement to her.

"That's still pretty far if we're going by this!" Naruto exclaimed as he pointed to the boat on the shore. It was a classic wooden rowboat with a modified propeller attached to it, so it seemed like some sort of a make-do motorboat. And it was completely wooden too. The thing didn't look like it could last 40 kilometers, and he was pretty sure they wouldn't make it to their destination with the thing still intact, assuming they even made it at all.

"That's technically not even a damn propeller! It's just a few blades of table fans taped together!" He said in exasperation, "And they've not even used the blades of the same fan!" He pointed over to the one mismatched propeller blade, which was a rusty orange, as opposed to the other two that were a shade of blue almost completely faded due to corrosion.

"Worry not, it still works pretty well," Chiron said. And what's worse was that he seemed proud of the motorboat they'd managed to assemble, "The Hephastheus kids rarely work on a budget this low, but just pour a little Greek fire into the pipe on the bow of the boat and turn the knob beside it, and it wheezes off like the wind."

Naruto's head was in his arms by now and he looked close to sobbing, "Fine," he said, almost breaking down, "I'll go with the crappy boat. I'll even bear the smart-ass. But why is the goat going with us? I mean, I myself have decent tracking skills."

"Grover is a crucial part of your team. As a satyr, he has a pure and deep connection to Nature, and apart from his uncanny ability of sensing things and tracking them, he has various other talents that are bound to be useful." Chiron said in a manner that reminded him of the Third Hokage when he would give Team 7 missions and coach them about team cooperation.

"Do those talents include the inability to wear shoes?" Naruto asked with his eyes on the still struggling Grover, trying to fit his hooves in his shoes. Grover bleated upon realizing everyone had gone silent and were looking at him, and asked timidly, "What?"

Naruto shook his head, and decided to play with the young goat, "So, I was just asking Chiron whether you're fitting your hooves into your shoes or your shoes on your hooves?" He said with a puzzled look on his face.

Grover had never been asked such a deep question. He lost himself in thought upon these unanswered questions of life while Naruto just looked on in amusement.

Chiron coughed to draw his attention towards him and get over the awkward silence, "So, you'll set out with Annabeth and Grover. She'll inform you about the details of the quest on the way so you don't waste much time here."

And that was how Naruto found himself pouring the greenish liquid that Annabeth called Greek fire from a vial into the metal pipe that jutted out from the bow of the boat and looked as unusual as a blob fish.

Initially the row boat had the speed of a snail and sailed even slower than what Naruto had expected it to be. Afraid that he might have to row a wooden boat over to a sea on the other side of the world, he had almost called the quest off. That was when Annabeth had told him to pour some Greek fire into the pipe.

Now they were speeding through the Long Island Sound so fast that Grover had already spilled his previous two meals into the water and over the side of the boat, although the puke itself seemed strangely metallic. He could swear he had seen a piece of tin with Coco ColaTM still on it, logo and all.

Everything outside the boat was a blur.

Now he was afraid they might hit a large rock and get turned into splotches of blood and muscles and die, since it was near impossible to manually control the rowboat. However, it seemed to change direction at will, and Naruto could not even see what they were crossing or where they were since everything outside was just a speedy blur, so he decided not to bother anyways.

Then suddenly Grover's timid voice piped up, "I've finally got it!"

Annabeth and Naruto looked at him quizzically, and she decided to voice their collective question, "What've you got?"

"The answer to Naruto's question!" He said excitedly, "I was fitting my hooves inside the shoes, and not the other way around!"

"Shut up, Grover." Annabeth and Naruto said in perfect synchronization with twitching eyebrows, making the satyr visibly deflate.

Yep, it was going to be one difficult journey, Grover thought as he promptly proceeded to puke his guts out over the edge of the boat again.

There, all done. Drop a review and do let me know if you want me to have Naruto delve into these non-cannon quests or if you'd rather have me make him stick to strictly cannon flow of things.

Thanks for reading guys, Ja Ne!