When did everything go to shit?
Right after meeting the blond who called himself Naruto.
Ever since then, everything had gone downhill. His Math teacher had tried to kill him after turning into some kind of gigantic bat with monstrous fangs. Then she disappeared into golden dust and, to make things worse, nobody seemed to remember her.
He got expelled from school, had to run away with his mother and Grover while even lightning itself seemed to be after them, got into a car crash, and now he had just watched his mother die right in front of his eyes because of some damned half-bull man.
"This is a fucking dream, right?"
He thought to himself, unable to hold back his tears as he looked at his mother. The person he cared about most was dead, and he had done nothing to stop it…
He felt incredibly weak.
The rain started pouring down hard, soaking Percy completely. Grover was unconscious on the ground after taking a hit. It was just him and the bull-headed monster charging straight at him.
He began slowly moving out of the bull's path, trying to dodge the attack and guide it toward a tree. With any luck, the impact would stun it long enough for him to at least save his best friend, when a red flash and a constantly rotating blue sphere appeared above the bull-man, followed by a blond man who seemed to be holding the sphere.
Everything seemed to move in slow motion; if you asked him, he would say he could even see the steam slowly leaving the bull's snout.
Until the sphere slammed into the Minotaur's back, followed by a huge explosion of wind and a shockwave that threw him to the ground and forced his eyes shut.
When he gathered enough courage to open them again, he saw the man he had met at the museum standing in the middle of the crater, with a cloud of golden dust drifting through the wind and a horn lying inside it.
"Percy, are you okay?" Damon asked, getting no response at all, since the black-haired boy had passed out.
Damon reacted in time and caught him before he hit the ground, then heard footsteps approaching them. He looked up and saw Chiron along with a group of teenagers of different ages, all staring at him.
"Hey, I need help. The satyr is hurt."
The campers did not waste any time. Several of them rushed over and helped carry Percy and Grover into the camp so their injuries could be treated.
Damon followed them in silence. This was not really the first time he had fought monsters, but the last time he had killed one had been during the war. At one point, he had even thought about locking them all in Tartarus just to avoid this kind of problem, but seeing hellhounds running loose only made him wonder what the hell Hades was doing. He was supposed to be the one making sure those creatures never left the Underworld.
Damon already had an idea of why nymphs and demigods ended up coming to this place. If they did not, their death was basically guaranteed… constantly hunted by monsters when that problem could have been avoided far more easily.
Another problem his brothers did not seem to care much about.
Letting out a sigh, Damon started looking around. He liked the place; nature was strong here, and he could feel it even from miles away.
Chiron kept his eyes on Damon, wanting to see whether he would be able to cross the barrier, and he was not even surprised when he did. He had the feeling that there was something divine inside him, something strange, as if that same power had allowed him to know his name without ever having seen him before.
The problem was that he could not even feel this guy at all, and that was saying something since he was a centaur. Sensing certain things was in his nature, but when it came to this blond, he felt nothing… He had never felt anything like that before, not even with the gods… it was as if the blond was not really there.
That being said, this guy had already shown advanced knowledge back at the museum, and Chiron did not dislike that. After all, it was not the first time it had happened with other demigods. Every now and then, someone always showed up who knew more than they should and started digging.
The problem was that they never lasted long. Eventually, one way or another, Zeus always got rid of them for one reason or another. Chiron already had the feeling that the king of the gods simply did not like intelligent people unless you were his descendant and swore loyalty to him.
Still, he had the feeling things would be different with this boy; the way he moved was different; he was well trained… He had to be the son of a powerful god because of the aura he gave off.
What truly surprised him, though, was the fact that the boy was being claimed the moment he set foot inside the camp, leaving him stunned. All that was left was to wait for the light to fade and reveal which deity he was the son of or connected to... and what he saw made his blood run cold.
He began to kneel, lowering his front legs, an action that left the campers in shock since he had never knelt before, not even for a son of Zeus.
"Hail Damon Uzumaki, related to Gaia, Mother Earth... and champion of Chaos, Primordial of the universe and creator of all."
Damon froze in place. A chill ran through his entire body when he heard who had claimed him as her champion, and he could feel every hair on his body standing on end.
"This has to be a joke," the blond thought.
All the campers were kneeling beside Chiron to show respect toward Gaia and, more importantly, toward the creator of everything known, but Damon did not miss the way everyone reacted.
They were all incredibly tense; they did not know what to do or say, and none of them seemed to have the courage to lift their heads and look in the blond's direction, and honestly, he was not doing much better than they were.
"You've got the eye of the strongest being on you," Son Goku said with amusement in his voice.
"Thanks, you fucking monkey, that really helped calm me down," Damon replied mentally, getting a laugh out of the gigantic Four-Tails ape. "I expected the Gaia part... but the Chaos part is something else."
"Don't overthink it, there must be a reason for it," Kurama commented calmly so he would not overwhelm his partner any further.
"Damon never stops surprising us," Matatabi purred inside the blond's mind.
Damon sighed at all of that. How was he supposed not to care? Chaos, the creator of the damned universe, had just claimed him as her champion... and the fact that she was constantly watching him did not calm him down in the slightest.
"Hey, Damon," Shukaku's voice was heard. "What would your symbol look like?"
That question confused the blond a lot. Honestly, he had not even thought about it.
"I don't know."
"Aren't you curious?" Shukaku asked again, now wearing a grin that worried the other Bijuu, who had already been about to thank the tanuki for distracting Damon.
Damon tilted his head slightly to one side while bringing a hand to his chin, trying to picture what his symbol would look like.
"Honestly, I think that whole thing is stupid."
That caught the attention of all nine beasts, who stayed silent to let the blond keep talking.
"I mean, the whole idea of claiming others like they're some kind of trophy..." he said with a frown. "If they don't do something that makes their father or mother proud, they don't get claimed, like their kids are some kind of trophy to show off to the other gods or something."
All the Bijuu agreed with Damon's thought, but they did not add anything because the blond kept talking.
"But honestly, I am curious about what my symbol would be."
"Claim yourself!" Shukaku quickly added, his sinister grin growing even wider.
"Stop saying stupid shit, sand-brain," Gyuki replied.
"WHAT DID YOU CALL ME, WALKING TENTACLE?!" the tanuki shouted angrily at the insult from the enormous ox-headed octopus.
"SAY THAT AGAIN, SAND RACCOON!"
The argument looked like it would keep going, but it was interrupted by a familiar laugh.
"That would be the peak of arrogance, claiming myself," the blond said between laughs. "Can you imagine the chaos and the questions that would cause?"
"Yeah, yeah," Shukaku said, putting aside his fight with Gyuki in order to convince the blond. "Do it, the looks on those meat sacks' faces would be hilarious."
"Damon, if you do that, you'll be letting the other gods know you're here," Matatabi said softly, trying to make him understand her point.
"But if he doesn't even know what his symbol looks like, what makes you think the others do?" the tanuki said quickly.
Damon had to admit the tanuki had a point. After all, how were the others supposed to know he was Damon?
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