Disclaimer: I do not own the 'Percy Jackson' series or Naruto

Chapter 1: Naruto and the Hunters of Artemis

NARUTO

The chakra signatures I was tracking were flaring wildly. They were in combat. I could hear the clashing blades from here. "I thought guns had put blades out of use." I thought.

I picked up the pace going faster. The least I could do was find out who was using blades in the 21st century, Kurama would kill me if I didn't.

I stopped abruptly when I saw a redheaded girl with life-threatening injuries. She was barely older than 13.

I fight for my precious people and only my precious people. That was my new ninja way but I did not have the heart to just let people die in front of me. I could damn my selflessness sometimes; it has only given me trouble.

I put my hands together, forming a cross shape with my fingers and called out "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu" (shadow clone jutsu). A poof of smoke and then standing next to me was an exact copy. I ran towards the sound of combat leaving the clone to tend to the girl, she must have gotten separated from the rest of her group.

I arrived to the scene of 30 girls varying from ages 10 to 18, who were wearing silver ski jackets, blue jeans and black combat boots, each of them wielding a silver bow. They seemed to be fighting a pack of dogs; there were 15 of them.

Their weapons and opponents shimmered slightly every now and again "GENJUTSU!? When, how and who?" I gathered my chakra and released it in a burst. Everything became clear, the bows weren't just silver, they were also glowing and the dogs got a little bigger and more feral, by a factor of around… 20. One of the girls snapped her head in my direction. She had auburn coloured hair and moons for eyes, other than that one would normally not be able to tell much difference between her and the rest, she was around their age and wore the same clothing but I could see. Her eyes spoke of experience, her posture spoke of authority and her aura spoke of power.

There was one additional startling fact about her. "She is not just wielding it, she is made of chakra, her whole being is. Just like Kurama!" I thought "She also managed to sense my use of chakra." If I wasn't wearing seals to restrict my chakra she probably would have sensed my reserves as well. She was analyzing me as much as I was her; I was impressed…

…But not distracted. Behind her at the edge one of the girls was about to be flanked by hound number 16. If I did nothing, she would die. I fight for my precious people and only my precious people but I do not have the heart to just let people die in front of me. My chakra was mostly locked down so I couldn't enhance myself enough to be able to kill the hound and save the girl. It was already mid pounce it had to hit something. I could damn my selflessness sometimes; it has only given me trouble.

I was able to go fast enough to get between the beast and its target. I was rewarded with a shark sized bite on my right shoulder. My left hand, held a black kunai in its grip and with a swing I decapitated the hound.

The girl was a picture frozen in time, her heart that had been shrouded in disbelief ambushed by the impossibility. Was it really that surprising? I was only doing what any other man would in my position. I didn't have time to think about that as I could sense another of the beast's charge at me. I stepped aside and drove the kunai into the beast's neck which then burst into golden dust.

The odd glowing group had also killed of the rest. Shortly I was facing quite a bit of killing intent. I turned to see two dozen arrows aimed at my face. "Did I insult their honour or something?" I heard some of them whispering to each other in, ancient Greek? It had been a few centuries since then so my ancient Greek was a bit rusty. I did manage to catch the word Jackelope though, "What does that have to do with anything?"

The Auburn spoke "who are you mortal?"

"Ok, I'll try to play this cool; I don't want any trouble." I thought and said"Where I come from it is polite to introduce oneself first." One arrow nicked my ear, there were still 27 hoping to finish me off.

A black-haired girl spoke "My lady asked thou a question, hath thee no respect?"

I glared and stated "I respect those who I believe have earned it. How do expect me to know she is important if I don't know who she is?" In my head I was reminding myself not to point out the old English.

The leader spoke again "Calm down Zoe he is right." She turned to me "I am Artemis goddess of the hunt."

"I am Naruto, Uzumaki."

"What have you achieved to be called whirlpool?" she asked, curious and wary.

"It is my family name, I have no titles…" that have any meaning to anybody else here.

She nodded and said "It is no matter anyway. I must thank you Uzumaki, for assisting one of my hunters."

"I only did what any other man would do." Of course I meant men, not monsters like Madara, they didn't count.

She scoffed "Then the world is apparently lacking in men."

I gave her a hard look. I could feel her hate, to be able to sense it without the bijuu mode suggested a lot of it. "Do you hate men?"

She glared and said "Men are selfish, cruel and arrogant. The men I have met have not done anything but take and destroy."

"So you see us as monsters, do you hunt down monsters?" I demanded "If you had just seen me walking by would you have put an arrow in my heart? We are all born with the same heart and blood. No one is born a monster."

Her glare grew cold "I beg to differ; I have seen many different monsters in my hunt. Even if I had not, what would a mortal such as you know of monsters?"

"We have had monsters, I know of many. True monsters are corrupted in the soul not the body; anyone and anything can be a monster. Do you remember Adolf Hitler? He could have been a great man, he had the spirit and talent of a leader, but he became a titan whose horrible acts have yet to be matched. A titan made in a forge from the steel of pain and the fire of hatred. Pain leads to hatred and hatred causes war, death and more pain. Do not bear hatred for it is the true heart of a monster."

She pretended to ignore my words but my words had gotten through to her "Leave, I will not force my hunters to bear your presence any longer." Her voice held an authority that would not be denied, by most.

"I am not that bad." I whined all of my wisdom from my days as Hokage had run off somewhere leaving behind the boy who had painted the Hokage Mountain.

"You are testing my patience. I will only say it once more: leave now." she demanded with a frostbitten calm.

"No need to get angry. It's not like I am some sort of pervy sage" I yelled.

Her eyes withheld a storm and she said "Give me one reason I should not turn you into a Jackelope right now." So that's what the Jackelope talk was about.

"Well if you really want to know, I am more of a fox."

"Fine"

She waved her hand then everything went dark. Looking back I think my shinobi danger senses had gone off with my wisdom.

I woke up in the sewer which I recognized as my mindscape. I was about to get myself out when I thought "Maybe I should talk to Kurama, It's been a while." and with that thought I went to where I knew his cage used to be.

"Oy, Furball! Get up we need to talk"

I heard a groan then "Quiet down, I'm right here you don't need to shout". From the shadow I saw the great nine tailed fox in the flesh, no wait that's wrong, chakra. "Now what's so important that you needed to bring me here?"

"I just met the strangest people, but I don't need to tell you that, you would know that already: you have access to my memories. That is unless you can't get in anymore."

"Of course I can, I am not called the greatest of the bijuu for nothing!" that would mean something if any of them were still alive.

"Who do you think they were?" I asked.

"Well the leader told you herself, she is Artemis, goddess of the hunt and those are her hunters. Are you suddenly death in your old age kit?"

My eyebrow twitched "You are contradicting yourself you can't call me old and kit. Even so I'm only 300 years younger than you!"

"It's more true right now than you'd think" he said Kurama raised an eyebrow and said "You haven't realized yet?" I stared at him confused and he just exploded into a fit of laughter. I knew I was only 300 years younger than him what does he find so funny about it.

Clearly I had to express these misconceptions "What are you laughing at Kyuubi -teme!?"

"Oh, just a little surprise for when you wake up." He said "Now, get out!"

I woke up instantly. "Stupid furball", I was brought out of my thoughts by the memories of the dispelled clone. Apparently the furball wasn't the only idiot; I instantly dashed to where the clone had been. The girl who my clone had been with wasn't picked up by the others; they must have thought she was dead. I could sense that the group was moving away, fast, if I didn't hurry the redhead wouldn't make it back to the others.

I got to the girl a few seconds later, but there was something really wrong. "Why is she taller than me, no that's not right", I brought a paw up to face and got into a thin-Wait, PAW. I figured out what it was a second later when the girl, who was now wide awake, looked at me and said "Hello fox".

"Why in the world am I a fox!?" I could hear Kurama laughing in my head. I grew frustrated, "shut it furball". The laughing grew even more and he said "Are you talking about yourself or me?" This only served to make me more frustrated.

The girl just watched, amused at the constantly changing expression on the fox's face. I decided to think about changing myself back later so that I could help the girl. I turned my head to try to tell the girl to follow me, she just looked confused. "Should I really take here back to that group…?" I asked myself. "…if I don't then she will get lost and she probably doesn't have anywhere else to go." I could damn my selflessness sometimes; it has only given me trouble.

Groaning internally, I walked up to her leg, and pulled lightly on her jeans. Her face lit up with understanding and I decided to lead the way to her group. We raced through the forest a blur of silver and orange; I was glad that she could keep up, considering that even as a fox and with restriction seals on I was faster than most cars.

When we caught up to the group they had set up camp and the redhead immediately yelled out joyfully "HEY!" The shock lasted for a second before it turned into joy. I smiled at the scene and left silently, my good deed done. Unknown to me my leave was not unnoticed by the eyes of a certain goddess. Who could only think "maybe I was a bit hasty in transforming the boy."

"AARGH! I've been at this for hours. How the hell do I get back to normal!?" I yipped, I had my paws on my snout and was shaking my head frantically; in front of me were several pieces of paper with arrays of strange symbols and scribbles. "Why can't I think of a seal that will fix this!?" I thought. My metaphorical light bulb above my head suddenly burst into action, put my paws together, I could feel the chakra build up and I said "KAI!" Then…nothing happened, "guess it's not an illusion then."

From within my mind I heard "Ok, this isn't funny anymore"

I entered my mindscape so I could talk fox-to-fox, I mean face-to-face. "So you finally decided to help furball?"

"Hold your tongue kit or I might just change my mind and let you deal with this on your own." I couldn't see it but I knew his eyebrow was twitching so I just stayed silent. "Now let me explain, the technique that turned you into a fox doesn't work like the genjutsu (Illusionary Techniques) that you're used to. This technique isn't an illusion it actually turned you into a fox; it isn't just a henge jutsu (transformation technique) either, it doesn't need to be maintained and is permanent. The solut-"

"GAH! I'm stuck like this forever, I not a fo-" SMACK!

"WILL YOU LET ME FINISH!" I promptly shut up "Thank you, as I was about to say before I was rudely interrupted" fortunately his attempts to burn me with the flames of amaterasu from his non-existent sharingan failed "Your regeneration should heal you back to normal in a few weeks since it considers fox foreign as otherwise you would have grown up with more than just whisker for having me sealed in you. Until then just use a seal enhanced henge"

I just looked at him oddly and drawled out "what?" SMACK "What was that for!?"

"For being an idiot!" I couldn't really argue with that "You just need to wait a few weeks and you'll be back to normal"

"Oh, I guess it isn't that bad then" I gave out a relieved sigh. "I won't be visiting town or eating anything cooked for a while. Wait, I can use a henge. Thanks Kurama"

The first thing I did when I was awake again was to stick my paws together and perform the henge technique. Then I returned to the camp I called home to stare at the fire.

Still in my head Kurama was grim as he started fading from Naruto's mindscape and thought to himself "He may not be a corpse but he is just as dead as everyone else. Why can't he move on? Why can't he live his life? It is what they would have wanted for him. At least he lived some today, even if it was merely for a few minutes."

A few months later I encountered them again. This time I made sure to keep one of my seals open when I jumped in.

They were fighting a few Cyclops this time. I jumped in when one picked up a tree and was about to score a home run on, coincidentally, the redhead from a few months ago.

"Dynamic Entry!" I shouted as I drove my foot into the Cyclops face. It is no wonder lee did that so much, it is actually kind of fun. The Cyclops wouldn't say the same as it was introduced to a tree.

I turned and saw that the hunters had killed the rest. "Hi again." I said.

Everyone was pointing their arrows at me, again, except for the redhead who was just confused. She kept looking at me, then at the Cyclops, then back at me again. "Did you just…" Maybe stunned would be a better word.

Artemis spoke first "How?"

I was about to answer but then I felt something behind me "wait a sec…" I spun 180 degrees and hammered the Cyclops, who was this close to grabbing my neck, through the tree that he had become best buddies with today. I turned back to Artemis and said "what was that I was a bit distracted."

"Last time we met you left as a fox."

I scratched the back of my head "oh, that. Umm… I guess I was lucky. Wait a second you're the one who did that to me!" I pointed a finger at her accusingly.

Her eyebrow was twitching "I'll admit that I acted too hastily but you were the one that provoked it."

I shook my head "nu huh, I was just speaking my mind."

"You may have escaped it once but I can just do it again. So don't try." She threatened.

A chill crawled up my spine, "You may have escaped me once common sense but I shall be certain that you will suffer if you attempt it again." With the hunters oblivious to my internal melodrama I shakily said "there is no need for that. I'll just be on my way." I started whistling suspiciously and shuffled like a penguin away. Then I stopped turned and walked back through the group.

"What are you doing?" she demanded.

"My home is that way." I had to tread really carefully.

She was staring at me suspiciously "There isn't a single structure for miles that way."

"I am camping." I stopped and faced the redhead. "She hasn't aged a day." I thought. "How old are you?"

A truck collided with my face and I came face to face with Artemis's dreadful visage. A wave of her hand and suddenly everything went dark. I recalled some things Kurama mentioned about modern day flirting and thought that "Maybe I could have approached that differently."

When I turned back into normal that time, things started getting odd. I would occasionally get a monster visitor straight out of Greek mythology. A couple of months later and I had another type of visitor.

"How did I get involved in this mess" I quickly dodged to the left, barely avoiding the fist that could have taken my head of my shoulders.

I stood in a clearing surrounded by three Laistrygonian Giants. I pulled a kunai out of the seal in my sleeve and threw it at the one that had just tried to hit me. It hit it right in its forehead and it fell down dead, immediately the other two collapsed as well. "What why did they-"

"There is one more. Permission to kill, my lady?" I heard from behind me. I turned and saw the Hunters from before, with Zoe and Artemis in front.

I responded the only logical way "Is that really necessary?"

"It might be seeing as you seem to be immune to my other form of punishment." That came from Artemis. She started smirking "You know what, why not both, I will transform you into a fox then Zoe can hunt you down."

"You can't fox me if you can't catch me!" I yelled as I ran off into the forest.

She chased after me "Oh no you don't. Come back here and face me like a man!"

I shouted over my shoulder "As pleasant as that sounds I would rather like to stay alive instead!"

In my mind Kurama came into existence and started observing the events unfold. Naturally he was amused.

I thought that I might be getting a lead but then she started firing arrows. I dodged and use the trees for cover. When she found out that ranged combat wasn't working she brought out her knives and went in for a direct assault. She was fast and skilled so I brought out a couple of knives of my own and engaged in the dance of combat.

It started of simple: strike, strike, block, block; strike, strike, block, block. Then she started countering my strikes and I countered hers. Then we started moving, stepping out-of-the-way or getting into an opening which turned out to be false. Then we brought advanced techniques into the mix. She tried to swipe me of my feet but I jumped over and sent a high kick. She caught it with her hand, forgoing a knife for the opportunity, and attempted to stab me in the chest. I jumped, using my captured leg as a pivot, to spin, grabbed the armed wrist and elbowed her face. She let go of my leg, used the arm to deflect the incoming strike and put some distance between us. This sequence only took a couple of seconds.

I don't know when but at one point we had started smiling. It had become more of a spar than a fight. "Sorry I am a little bit rusty, but I am still good enough to meet you to a draw." I said.

She smirked and said "unfortunately for you, you are wrong: this is my win."

"What are you-?" I was kicked from behind towards Artemis, she waved her hand and suddenly everything got bigger.

Zoe landed next to her, bow at the ready but Artemis lowered it. "Don't bother; he is no threat to us."

Zoe nodded "Yes my lady." Then they left.

A few months later I found a hole in the forest I was staying in and a set of foot prints that led off into the distance. By the pit there was a scrap of black cloth with a red cloud on it.

After I left the elemental nations they split apart and shuffled around the world so I would occasionally find an object or place that was too hard or too small to be taken by the apocalypse. I had found the Konoha memorial stone and now it looks like I found Hidan.

Shikamaru had told me that Hidan was immortal but blown to pieces and underground. He may not have my regeneration or even the Uzumaki healing factor but as long as he was still alive he would have eventually healed his body back, even if it took him over 10000 years.