The sound of something falling snapped Athena out of her train of thought.
The book she was reading was closed as she stood up from her seat and walked over to the direction the noise came from, looking at the door that led to her personal (huge) library only to nearly gasp in shock upon seeing some of the bookcases lying on the ground stacked on each other.
"What the..." A scowl made it to her face when she remembered who was in there, the only person she gave full-admission to enter "you got to be kidding me" Athena muttered under her breath. Moreover, here she thought this child of Zeus and Hera was better than his warmonger brother, who once made all the bookcase of her library collapse the same way his younger brother did today.
She stomped towards the library section of her palace with the intent to kill the one who was destroying her collection.
But before she could even reach the place, an orange blur went past her before she could even see what it was. Slightly knocked back because of the wind caused by the speed of the movement, Athena ignored the strange phenomenon an continued to walk to her library.
Just like she thought, every single bookcase had fallen to the ground. Books were lying all around the floor of her library and for someone like Athena, this looked like her worst nightmare. The worst part was that there was a bookcase on the wall at the other side of the room, which looked like it was punched across the room and stuck to the wall.
Looking around, Athena tried to search for the destroyer of her library but couldn't find anyone other than herself standing inside it. Curious, Athena recalled the orange blur and realized it must have been Naruto trying to get out of the place before she could get to him.
Sighing, Athena clicked her fingers and everything was slowly moving back into place.
But something caught her eyes when she picked up a few books on the ground; it was lying open on the table used for reading.
Her eyes widened when she realized what that book was about...
Greek Mythology…
[At the same time]
Naruto ran, he ran like never before across the field of Olympus, crossing streets at lightning speed and almost knocking over a handful of minor Gods. His body was covered in Kurama's chakra, his eyes' pupils were showing the combination of Sage mode and Bijuu mode. Through the use of Senjutsu, he could feel them all, every single immortal being living on Olympus, including his family.
When he reached the cliff, Naruto did the first thing anyone with a lot of troubles on his mind would do, if he had balls of steel that is…
He took the jump...he had enough of this place...he wanted to go somewhere else, he wanted to have some alone time to clear his mind.
"NARUTO! DON'T!" his head snapped to the side and saw the beautiful love goddess Aphrodite standing there with her hand reached out, her eyes wide and her mouth wide opened in shock.
She probably thought he was doing something very stupid, which, according to common sense, he was.
It wasn't like falling from the floating mountain above the highest building of New York could kill him …
However her shout made him slip a bit, his right foot slammed into the balcony, making Naruto lose his balance and fall off Olympus head down.
"SHIT! FUCK YOU APHRODITE!" that was the only curses he knew, he had read it from a book he borrowed from Athena's collection when she was in his world.
Naruto twisted his body in the air, balancing himself before pressing both of his arms as close to his body as he could, his feet stuck together in order to eliminate most of the wind resistance. Mount Olympus was the highest point he had ever jumped from so hopefully he would be able to land on the ground without any broken bones.
"Naruto..."
"Not now Kurama, I need some fresh air" Naruto told his partner, letting the sound of wind blowing around him south his nerves.
Some of things he read from Greek Mythology, everything that was written from the mortals' point of view, were sickening and downright horrifying.
Aphrodite had told him to read it to find out the reason behind her affairs.
He did find it, along with a LOT of interesting things about his family, though he was not so sure he should be calling them that now…
However, what made him sad, not angry, but very, very sad was that most of it came from his own parents.
He didn't think that he could look at them the same way again...his parents.
The Empire State Building was in sight, Naruto once again twisted his body on the air so both of his feet could make the contact with the building. His chakra moved from his stomach to the cores of his feet, ready to stick to the vertical surface of the building.
With his amazing skills and control, Naruto managed to land both of his feet on the vertical surface of the building, his hand reached out and stuck to the building, also having a large yet controlled quantity chakra on them to slow him down. Naruto slid on the hard surface of the building, slowly decreasing his falling speed.
"The mist will covered you, so don't worry" Kurama advised him after realizing that he just slid across a window with a man standing on the inside holding window-wiper in his hand.
"How does that work anyway?" Naruto asked, mostly to himself. Unlike the Elemental Nations, Earth had something called The Mist, which covered the mortals' eyes from the unnatural things around them.
As far as he was concerned, He wasn't affected by the Mist and he was very pleased to know that. Not knowing what happen around him was not a good thing, especially for a Shinobi.
When his speed finally returned to normal, he took a strong jump, cracking the window a bit.
Landing on the ground as gently as he could, Naruto fixed his jacket and looked around. This was his first time in the mortal world, New York to be exact but he was not keen on traveling and sightseeing.
Line Break
"More" Naruto told the barmaid with a very lazy tone.
"Aren't you too young to drink this much?" she asked, her hand pouring the wine into Naruto's cup and he, once again drank it in one gulp.
"Old enough to kill, old enough to drink" Naruto muttered to himself. That statement was something he got from some drunk shinobi drinking with each other after a day of hard work, "Strange…what is this wine anyway?" it wasn't like he never drank before, after all, most of his role models were either an alcoholic (Tsunade) or Perverts with a love for Bars (Jiraya, Kakashi and Iruka, even if the latter would not admit it).
'Drink to Forget' Naruto thought.
As soon as he found out a place that resembled the bars around The Elemental Nations, he went in despite having no money to pay for the fees later. Naruto immediately ordered the strongest drink they had and began to drink himself silly, he didn't remember how many times he had asked the waitress to fill his cup but the last time he stopped counting, it was an hour ago.
"Vodka" The waitress shook her head before heading to serve someone else after filling Naruto's cup once again, wondering how someone as young as him could handle so much alcohol, she didn't complain either way, as long as the guy had money, he could kill himself for all she cared…
Naruto kept on drinking for another hour before reaching his limit, his vision a little blurry, not because he was drunk but the fact that there were so many things on his mind.
Folding his hands on the table, Naruto rested his head against them and closed his eyes.
No sooner did he do that, he found something interesting happening right in front of him.
"I usually do not drink" the woman who just sat down on the chair beside him said "but I think I will make an exception this time. Give me the same thing he's having," she told the waitress casually. The beautiful woman was drawing a lot of attention from the opposite sex around the bar with her incredible beauty, not to mention she was also sitting next to quite a specimen.
"Aunt Hestia" a small smile made it to his face when he realized who she was "Did my parents tell you to come here to get me?"
"No, Naruto" Hestia said softly "I came here by myself." the goddess of the Hearth moved her fingers and smiled sadly at him "how does it feel Naruto?" she asked him even though she knew most of the answer. Naruto didn't why but he felt as if the only one he could trust right now with his problems was Hestia.
"Sad? Yes…Hurt? Probably…Betrayed? Of course…Tricked? Sure...Angry? Not really… " he muttered under his breath even though she could hear him loud and clear. He then turned his head to the goddess "Aunt Hestia, how can you put up with them for so long? You're a kind and very peaceful goddess and probably the only one who is still in my good book."
"Because they're my family, Naruto" Hestia said softly.
"So it was true" Naruto muttered. He still had some doubts over what he read but now he finally found out it was all real "Family doesn't throw their member from Olympus to the ground when he was a baby." Naruto said with the emotionless tone "family doesn't fight over each other to decide who is the most beautiful which results in a war killing thousands of people."
The list went on and went on, to the point Naruto hardly believed that some of them were real.
"I don't know what to do anymore Aunt Hestia" Naruto grabbed his face, looking at the glass of Vodka in front of him "They're my parents and yet...they did something unforgivable so randomly just because they are gods and powerful" he then thought about Aphrodite "they forced Aphrodite to marry my brother, someone who she clearly doesn't love. Despite the thing everything she did, how could they force a love goddess to marry someone she doesn't love?"
"For someone who is just getting use to this world, this is a lot to take in, isn't it?" Naruto couldn't help but nod his head.
"I need time to think, time to accept this. Those were the things they did in the past and I...I can't change it" he whispered and drank his wine in one gulp "the past is the past; the only thing I can do now is to look at the future." then suddenly a lightning bolt struck. Said lightning bolt seemed more powerful than normal ones.
"Zeus is calling for a meeting of the Olympians, sooner or later they will come searching for you Naruto" Hestia told him, pulling out a stack of dollars and giving it to the Barmaid.
"I will let them try" Naruto muttered "I don't think I should return to Olympus at this time Auntie, I might blow the whole place up if I do so" he said truthfully. He really wanted to blow something up right now "can you...not tell them?"
"Of course Naruto, I respect your decision" Hestia nodded her head "but, what are you going to do now?"
"I don't know. But I think I can manage to find something to do to pass time and know what I need to do, to me and also the ones living in the sky" Naruto said "it's too bad that now I don't have any way to go back to the Elemental Nations "
"You can find that help from me Naruto" Hestia smiled at him "if you want I can secretly bring you back to your home in The Elemental Nations. But you have to promise me that you won't stay there forever. This place, this family needs someone like you Naruto" she said.
"I will auntie" Naruto nodded his head, leaning his head back against his chair and closing his eyes.
In the blink of an eye, Hestia disappeared, as if she never sat next to him in the first place.
Looking at Hestia's glass of Vodka, he saw that she didn't even touch it at all. Reaching his hand to the cup, Naruto put it close to his mouth, drank the strong substance in one gulp before standing up, and getting out of the bar.