Mr. Brunner wheeled out of the elevator, the only way to go from the mortal world to the mountain floating above, he looked around and saw that the tension on Olympus was really high, not only it could be felt in the air but the faces of the nature spirits around the area spoke it all, letting him know how bad was the situation.
The Latin Teacher of Yancy Academy stood up from his wheelchair and slowly, from the waist down his body began to change.
He continued to stand up; his waist kept getting longer, rising above his belt, taller than any man, the front of an animal appeared with muscle and coarse white fur. A leg came out of the magic wheelchair, long and knobby-kneed, with a huge polished hoof.
Then another front leg, then hindquarters, and then the box was empty, nothing but a metal shell with a couple of fake human legs attached.
This was Mr. Brunner's true form; he was the immortal centaur Chiron, the trainer of the heroes.
Chiron never thought he would need to come to Olympus around this time, especially when the gods already had their yearly Winter Solstice Meeting some months ago. Olympus went into a state that he had never seen before; even before Zeus' master bolt was stolen by the mysterious thief he could see there was something going on among the Olympian Council, and it wasn't something good he could tell.
But he felt that they would need to know about the owner of the kunai.
He didn't return to camp and inform Mr. D about this first but went straight to Olympus, thinking that the King of the Gods and the whole council should hear it from him directly.
Getting into the throne room, Chiron wasn't surprise to see the twelve thrones were empty and no Olympians were inside the room. Sitting beside the main hearth was the kind goddess Hestia, poking the fire with a long fire stick, looking into the fire with a soft smile on her face.
"Lady Hestia" Chiron bowed his head to her.
"Good evening Chiron" Hestia turned her head to the centaur and smiled "Great night, isn't it?" She asked and at that moment, Chiron got the feeling she knew the reason he came here for.
"Yes Lady Hestia, great night" his mind already formed the perfect story to tell the Olympians. Since he was watching out for the Percy boy, who he got the feeling to be the son of one of the Big Three, telling Zeus about him wouldn't be a good idea.
Bringing out his bow, Chiron notched an arrow and shoot it into the sky above. Thunder rumbled in the sky before twelve Olympians flashed into the Throne Room on their respective Throne.
"What is it Chiron?" Zeus asked with a growl "why do you summon us?"
This wasn't the best time for anyone to summon the Olympian Council. His son was missing and to make it worse the master bolt was stolen and Zeus was almost sure that his older brother Poseidon was the one who stole it. How? Definitely by using a demigod, it wouldn't be a surprise if Poseidon broke their oath.
"My deepest apologies for bothering you and the council Lord Zeus" Chiron pulled the kunai out from his shirt pocket, making almost all Olympians gasped in shock "but I think you should know about this"
Aphrodite was in her own state of shock, kunai could only belong to one person only and that was the Prince of Olympus Naruto.
But before she could speak a word, in the corner of her eyes she saw Ares looking at her with his flaming eyes behind those sunglasses of him. The goddess of love wisely kept her mouth shut, usually someone like him wouldn't be a problem but she was weak right now, still stronger than the minor gods but she was definitely weaker than the Olympians, even Ares.
"Where did you find it!?" It was Hera who asked that question but it was more like a shout, completely standing up from her throne.
"At Metropolitan Museum of Art, a demigod was attacked by a monster but it was killed before it could do anything to the boy" Chiron said "I returned shortly after and found this weapon in the wall"
"Artemis!"
"Impossible" The moon goddess defended herself by standing up from her throne, saying that with a steel hard tone even though she was facing her father "I had my hunters and even myself search every single corner around New York and we couldn't find him, there is no way Uzumaki is still here"
"Apparently you didn't search carefully enough" Hera said with a hint of anger in her voice.
"Don't question my hunting skills Hera" Artemis retorted angrily. It was bad enough when she, the goddess of the hunt, the best tracker on Olympus couldn't find a single boy for two years straight...now with his weapon popping up in the country she carefully searched, it was like that idiot blond was putting salt into her wound.
"Watch your tongue Artemis" Zeus thundered "Hera is right, you're didn't search carefully enough, continue searching for Naruto and stop whatever you're doing so you can focus on this task" the King of the God released a heavy sigh before saying "my son is more important" this statement made Chiron, the one who was completely oblivious of Naruto's existence widened his eyes in shock.
"Lord Zeus, what do you mean your son?" his eyes turned to Hera for a moment "you couldn't have..."
"No Chiron, I didn't break my oath" Zeus shook his head and Hera's expression saddened "the truth is..."
While Chiron listened to the story of Naruto, a frown made its way to Hestia's face. She knew Naruto better than anyone, even his parents; two years of watching over him let her understand her nephew more than anything. She was a little surprised someone like him, who was on the path of hiding from the Olympians, could carelessly leave his weapon back like that.
Maybe there was a reason behind this action of his or maybe he just randomly forgot to pick up his weapon.
Whatever it was, it didn't matter now because Hestia had been watching the situation on Olympus, a war between family members could break out at the next Winter Solstice.
Olympus needed Naruto more than ever, it was time for him to return.
Line Break
It was around six o'clock in the evening and the college students were on their way back to school, sitting for hours on the bus Naruto had nothing to do other than turn on the iPod and listen to the music.
Though he didn't have to listen to it alone because Caitlyn was in the mood for some music as well, so she borrowed one of his headphone and the two were listening to one of Caitlyn's most successful songs. Both Naruto and Daniel, with the help of Caitlyn had finished their assessment report and didn't have to worry much from now on.
Naruto couldn't help but admit that this was a very fun day. Other than Daniel he didn't have many friends in this world and never hanged around with anyone, and only got excitement every time Hestia brought him to Elemental Nations to visit his friends.
Getting a friend who was a girl like Caitlyn actually wasn't something Naruto never thought before but adding her into his more normal life here in the mortal world was indeed one of the best decisions he had ever made. He never hanged around with any girl like Caitlyn but she did bring some new colors to his everyday life, they usually tried to give him a punch on his head when he did something stupid (Sakura) or tried to make him remember as many details in a book as possible (Athena)...not to mention girls like Artemis or Zoe, and even Hinata were very hard to handle.
Plus, her songs were all good and he could listen to them hundreds of times and yet he didn't feel tired of them.
Naruto suddenly shuddered, more and he would turn out to be like Daniel, a super fan of Caitlyn.
"Hey Cait, you..." he suddenly got an idea and turned his head to look at her, but stopped when he saw that the girl had fell asleep with an open book lying on her thighs.
Smiling softly, Naruto reached his hand out and removed the headphone from her left ear. The bus' air conditioners were working rather strongly so it was pretty cold inside, Naruto then grabbed a cover from the cabin above, gently put it on Caitlyn's body to keep her warm before returning to his seat.
It was raining heavily outside, which by now wasn't much of a surprise to Naruto anymore. The weather was acting very strangely and he got the feeling that the Olympians were the reason behind this. Naruto doubted that he was the reason behind this sudden change in weather because two years ago, around two or three weeks after he left Olympus, the weather wasn't even this bad.
The only chance for him to know what was going on was through Hestia, at her next visit he was definitely going to ask her about this.
"Wait wait..." Naruto sat straight up when his bus suddenly turned left, as far as he could remember it needed to go straight to return to Boston "Oi Driver, where are you going?"
But he didn't get a reply, instead he kept on driving. Naruto began to get frustrated because he was getting farther and farther away from the right road. If the driver was a bus robber then he was about to find out that he robbed the wrong bus.
"Don't worry, he's driving the right direction" a soft and warm tone stopped Naruto from standing up, looking to the side his eyes widened when he saw Hestia sitting on the seat at the other side of the bus.
"Auntie, what're you doing here?" Naruto asked in surprise. Not that he wasn't glad to see her after a few months without his favorite aunt coming to visit him, but to see her right here on the bus with him was a surprise.
"Good evening Naruto" She smiled warmly at him "How are you?"
"I'm good auntie" Naruto nodded his head "what about you? It's been months since your last visit, I hope everything is alright up there"
"Sadly Naruto" Hestia looked down with a sad face "everything is not alright"
With the tone Hestia was using, Naruto knew that things weren't going well on Olympus around this time.
"What happen?"
"Your father's weapon, the Master Bolt, was stolen at last year's Winter Solstice" Hestia turned to Naruto and said seriously "and he feels that his brother, Poseidon is the one who stole it"
"What the... Why? I mean...does he have any proof?" Hestia shook her head "great, just great" Naruto scolded, crossing his arms across his chest and leaned back against his chair.
"As you know, your farther is rather...paranoid about his siblings, especially Poseidon." Hestia said "He opposed Zeus many times in the past, also with your disappearance the King of the Gods is desperate more than ever, and you can understand that being the first Olympian he would feel suspicious of his own brother. The two have been arguing back and forth for months, threatening war to each other and you can see that the weather is responding to their anger"
"But Poseidon definitely wasn't the one who stole it, was he?"
There are rules stopping us from stealing each other's symbol of power, and I believe that Poseidon isn't the thief in this matter" Hestia said surely "But you know, my brother is too proud to try convincing Zeus of that."
"Damn, I really want to punch some sense into him right now" Naruto muttered.
"Zeus has demanded that Poseidon return the bolt by the summer solstice. That's June twenty-first, three weeks from now"
"What about Poseidon, did he say anything about it?" Naruto asked
"Poseidon wants an apology for being called a thief by the same date. I tried to talk some sense into them but clearly both of them were too prideful to understand the situation" Hestia said sadly "the master bolt must be found and returned to Zeus before the solstice, or there will be war."
Naruto sighed, he could see the end of the world coming nearer and nearer with each day passing by.
Zeus and Poseidon weren't the best kind of brothers he could find, especially when the younger became the King of the Gods and ruler of the sky while the older one was only given the sea and that's all.
"It's time for you to return Naruto" Hestia said softly "We need you more than ever"
"Auntie..." Naruto looked at her, unsure of what to do. Part of him wanted to return to help his father while part of him didn't wanted to return and would like to stay away from the trouble his father brought himself just because he was too paranoid.
The bus then suddenly stopped and the door opened, in the middle of nowhere and it was raining pretty heavily outside.
"This is the road that will lead you to Camp Half-Blood," Naruto widened his eyes "you do not need to return to Olympus, but if you come near the camp the Olympian Council will know about you" Naruto nodded and stood up from his seat, not before leaving a clone behind to act like him for a few hours in case Caitlyn wake up.
"Percy Jackson and his satyr guardian, Grover Underwood are also on the way there" Hestia stood up from her seat and came to stand beside Naruto "you might meet them on the way there"
"I understand Auntie" Naruto nodded his head before turning to the goddess of the Hearth "but you must know that I might or might not stay at that Camp for long"
"I know Naruto" Hestia then put a hand on his shoulder "if you need anything, just say my name out loud and I will be there to guide you"
"Thank you auntie" Naruto grinned "phew, this is going to be so cold" Naruto looked at the rain outside.
"You're a shinobi right? This won't stop you from finishing your mission"
"You got that right Auntie Hestia" Naruto smirked but then turned to her "is there anything more I should know about?"
"I will fill you in on the details when you finally get to the Camp."
There were a lot of things Naruto needed to know about Olympus's conditions but that could wait until he finally got to Camp Half-Blood and claimed by his parent.
Naruto shot out of the bus and disappeared into the rain in a blink of an eyes. Running through the forest with neck-breaking speed, Naruto couldn't help but wonder what it would feel like to return to this godly world.
The Prince of Olympus was returning home.
Chapter 12.5 - Chapter 13 - Chapter 14