[Caterpillar] Chapter 40 - Tartarus (III) (Patreon)

"It's no good, my clones can't see anything. There's a shielding spell cast around the island. Looks like Hades is aware of our arrival." Naruto said.

He had sent several of his clones henged into tiny insects to spy on the floating island and gather intelligence but they could not get close to it due to a sphere of magic that encapsulated the entire island within.

"I guess our only method is to brute-force our way in," he concluded.

When he had been young, he would have not bothered with checking up on the place beforehand at all, he would have just smashed his way in, jumping head-first into danger. He had smartened up with the passing of time and he had become cautious. However, being cautious did not mean he had become a coward. If left with no better alternative, he could very well blow everything up with brute force like before too.

"What are we waiting for? Let's go!" Kyuubi said enthusiastically.

With the fox on his shoulder, Naruto and Wonder Woman started flying towards the floating island in the sky.

"How are we going to break their shield?" the princess asked. "Are you going to cast some of your powerful spells at it?"

Naruto and Kyuubi looked at each other and then started grinning widely.

"It's not the first time we see a fortress covered by a spell or energy shield. We've even designed a special technique for breaking them!" he said proudly.

Diana made an impressed sound.

"Oh? You never fail to surprise me with how versatile your techniques are. Controlling the elements, gravity manipulation, cloning, flying, becoming invisible, laying traps, shapeshifting, teleporting, self-regeneration, and even healing spells for others. Is there anything you can't do? I'm envious."

"One century of continuous training coupled with the experience absorbed from countless clones would make anyone just as strong. It would be weirder if I wasn't versatile and strong after such a long time," he said and grinned at her teasingly.

Flying to some distance away to give him space, she said:

"Well, go on, let's see what you've got."

Naruto and Kyuubi chuckled again at the same time as if they were laughing at an inside joke known only to them. As he was floating in the air, he suddenly started to flash through an incredibly quick and long series of hand-seals. That sequence of hand seals performed at such an insane speed was impressive by itself, to speak nothing of what was about to come. Wonder Woman's heart started beating faster in anticipation.

He said in a deep voice:

"Ninpo: World-Destroyer Big Ass Fox no Jutsu!"

Then, he grabbed the fox on his shoulder like it was a potato and yelled:

"YEEET!"

Under Diana's disbelieving eyes, he yeeted the fox towards the island as if he was a pitcher throwing a baseball on the field.

"Naruto, WHAT THE HELL!"

Diana was not one to swear, Naruto could count on the fingers of one hand the times he had heard her say a bad word. But this time she was shocked. Before any of them could say anything else, the tiny furball in the air suddenly became absolutely massive. With a roar of laughter, the enormous bijuu slammed into the shielding spell encasing the island. The even more absurd part was that the entire floating island shook terribly and the sphere of magic shielding it was shattered like glass. She turned to look at Naruto. He was laughing his ass off so hard he was having trouble maintaining his flight.

He had hyped it up as a "special technique designed for breaking barriers" and even formed a very long and impressive sequence of hand seals making her anticipation rise off the charts. She thought she was going to witness an awe-inspiring sight or an apocalyptic spell no weaker than a nuke. Not such a barbarian method.

Finally managing to get his wheezing laughter under control, he wiped a tear from the corner of his eye.

"It's called trolling. We do a little trolling sometimes."

A vein started pulsating dangerously on her temple.

"Naruto, you-, you-, !"

The situation was so incredulous that she could not find her words. They were going to have a life-and-death battle against a god and there he was, pulling pranks and dying with laughter from his own joke. She did not know how to even react to that.

But her thoughts were cut short when a demonic roar made the sky tremble. Kyuubi began his rampage.

⁂

"What are you playing at, Hera? Why would I trust my back to a vicious and labile woman like you?"

The rather deep and dignified voice came from a very tall and muscular man wearing black armour and a dark red cape. He had shoulder-length black hair and his sharp black goatee fit the image of the dark Ruler of Underworld. He was Hades.

The beautiful woman narrowed her eyes at him and said sharply:

"The last offspring Zeus made out of wedlock was Helen of Troy. At the end of the Trojan War, Zeus vowed to me on the River Styx that he would never spread his seed to anyone else. After that, I knew about his indiscretion with Hippolyta and many other women over the years. But I was willing to turn my head the other way as long as he never made another child with anyone else besides me."

At her words, Hades clenched his fists. Although thousands of years had passed, he had never forgotten how Zeus raped the woman he used to love and how he ruined his life. That was the very reason he had sided with the Titans against Olympus during the war. And that was the reason why he had been trapped in Tartarus ever since. To this day, he was filled with rage.

"I paid close attention to Hippolyta and the Amazons after the incident. But Hippolyta had never shown any signs of pregnancy and the daughter she made out of clay did not seem any different from the rest of the Amazons. Two thousand years passed and I have never suspected that her daughter was not made of clay but that it was her flesh and blood... Zeus's flesh and blood."

"I can no longer tolerate his infidelity, his lies...I can no longer tolerate him. He needs to die. I will kill him and his accursed offspring even if it's the last thing I do!"

The goddess's face was twisted from anger, looking like she was on the edge of insanity. Although Hades knew how manipulative and cunning the Queen of Olympus could be, the hatred in her voice and the jealousy in her eyes at that moment could not be faked. Furthermore, it was not the first time Hera had tried to dethrone her husband so he did not doubt her willingness to kill Zeus either. Regardless, Hades had learned his lesson from the past. Despite how powerful the Titans had been, even with him choosing to support their side, they still lost the war against Olympus.

"So many of us have tried to defeat him in the past. Even the Titans could not do it. Do you think just the three of us stand a chance against the entirety of Olympus?"

Speaking of the 'three' of them, Hades looked through the window of his castle. Outside, in the large courtyard of his outer fortress stood a massive being. It was like a creature out of a nightmare. Several hundred feet tall and wide, the gigantic being only had the legs and the torso of a humanoid. The rest of his body was that of a monster. He had 9 draconic heads, several pairs of fleshy wings, over 20 scally arms, barbed tentacles were growing out of his back, and snakes came out of his necks like the mane of a lion. It was none other than Typhon, the son of Gaia and Tartarus, the God of Monsters.

"Typhon is very powerful, indeed. But I hope you haven't forgotten Briareus, have you? How he squashed your little rebellion in the buds and how you were hanged by Zeus in the sky as punishment? Briareus is still loyal to Zeus and he is more than a match for Typhon." (1)

Hera's face burned with shame at being reminded of her humiliation in the past.

"Things are different now!" she spat through gritted teeth.

Taking a deep breath through her nose to calm herself down, the goddess continued:

"After nearly two thousand years, the people of Earth no longer worship the Olympian Gods. Without the power of faith, Zeus is much weaker than before. If he had been confident of his power, he would not have sent his half-blood of a daughter on a suicide mission to deal with you in Tartarus. He would have come here himself. As for Olympus, it's not as united as before either, not by far. Ares and Hermes have involved themselves completely with the mortal world, Athena only cares about her Amazons, and Poseidon would be more than willing to take my side against Zeus like before. The rest of the gods are either indifferent or simply too weak to be relevant in the grand scheme of things."

Hades sniffed condescendingly.

"Even at his peak, Zeus never dared to step foot into the realm of the dead, where all the Titans slumber or he would have tried to kill me a long time ago."

Taking one deep look at Hera, he said slowly:

"Fine, I will play along. I have nothing to lose anyway. But mark my words, Hera. If you betray me, make sure you kill me for good too or I will spend the rest of my eternal life to hunt you down."

The goddess was unphased by his threat. They were about to shake hands to seal the deal when the entire fortress quaked terribly. A deafening sound of glass breaking was heard and then a demonic roar shook the sky.

⁂

When the roar reverberated in the skies of Tartarus, for a moment, it was like time stopped. Every soul, every demon trapped in that hell froze up. Over a thousand feet tall and with nine enormous tails, it was a crimson behemoth. Typhon's 9 draconic heads started at the titanic demon in front of him in disbelief. He had never seen a creature bigger than himself. He was already several hundred feet tall but the demonic beast ahead of him dwarfed him so much that he looked like a dog in front of an ox.

'What is this? What is this feeling?'

He could not move. His two dozen of scaly arms were paralyzed. An uncomfortable feeling travelled down his spine. It was as if needles were pricking at his flesh, making him numb all over.

For the first time in his millennia-long life, the God of Monsters experienced a new feeling. It was fear. Terror.

"Die!" the bijuu roared.

An enormous fist crashed towards the God of Monsters with the power of a meteorite. A terrible boom rang and the several miles long island was smashed into smithereens!

In the distance, Wonder Woman momentarily stopped in her tracks in shock. For the first time, she got to see what a terrible power Kyuubi could wield. Involuntarily, her heart trembled. She knew that they were on the same side and that they cared about each other dearly as friends. But the feeling of fear creeping into her heart was beyond rationality. She understood then that the fox's arrogance and pride were not without reason.

'Then how strong is Naruto?' she could not help wondering.

She was seeing the two of them bickering on a daily basis and it was more than once that she heard the blond teasing the fox with the fact that he kicked his ass and the fox never contradicted it.

"Hades is not alone," Naruto said, startling her awake from her thoughts.

The pieces of the broken island crashed into the ground below with a deafening bang, raising enormous clouds of ash and dust in the air and covering the sky for miles. But when another terrifying roar rang, the shockwave it created instantly cleared away all the ash, dust and debris floating in the air. Amidst the remains of the obliterated island and the fortress on top of it, two human-looking beings stood together, surrounded by a protective sphere of magic.

"W-What-!"

The otherwise dignified-looking Hades had lost his composure and Hera's beautiful face was pale from shock. Trapped in Tartarus for millennia, Hades was not exactly up to date with the powerful beings outside of his realm. As for Hera, she had never paid any attention to the mortal world as mortals were beneath her notice. The two of them had been completely unaware of Kyuubi's infamy in the Universe.

Not far from them, a disgusting mass of flesh and blood was wriggling on the ashy ground and making disturbing sounds. A small draconic head appeared from it but it quickly increased in size and right after that, the rest of his body was regenerated like a miracle. It had been a terrible strike, one that had blown up the entire island. Taking a direct hit from such a devastating power was enough to obliterate any lesser being. But he was Typhon, the God of Monsters. Hydras, dragons, chimaeras, and other creatures known for their self-regeneration abilities and resilience were his offspring. As their god and ancestor, Typhon possessed all of their abilities but much stronger.

Overcoming his initial fear born out of instinct at facing a predator larger and more powerful than himself, after regenerating his body, Typhon roared in rage. His nine draconic heads opened their maws and black hellfire shot at the gigantic fox in front of him. But his attack was met with mocking laughter. With a mere flick of his enormous tails, a gale of wind not any weaker than a tornado snuffed the hellfire like a feeble candle.

Naruto made a clone and used it to transmit a message to the fox.

"Kurama, don't toy with him. Kill him fast. Keep in mind that I can't supply you with chakra this time. You're on your own."

Turning his attention towards Wonder Woman, he asked:

"I assume that's Hades? Who is the woman next to him? His wife?"

"Yes, it's Hades. As for that woman, it's Hera," she said stiffly.

His eyes shone with killing intent and he laughed.

"She delivered herself right to us. What are the chances?"

He was about to launch himself at them but she suddenly grabbed his arm from behind.

"Naruto! Don't take them lightly," she said seriously. "I don't know about Hera but the Justice League had fought against Hades once. He overwhelmed us. Superman, Martian Manhunter, Batman, Flash, and I, we didn't stand a chance. He defeated us all at once. We won in the end only by a fluke." (2)

He looked at her for a few seconds without saying anything. Then, he brought a hand to her face and gently tucked a strand of her sweaty hair behind her ear.

"I know, we talked about this already. Don't worry, I'll be careful, I promise."

Despite that they were about to enter the battlefield, Diana momentarily closed her eyes and leaned into the hand caressing her cheek.

"I'll take care of Hades and you of Hera. You okay with it?"

"Fine by me," she answered.

"I'll engage first and break them apart. Divide and conquer. But don't strain yourself. Play it safe and just stall for time until I kill Hades. After that, we'll join hands and kill Hera too."

Diana started to glare at him.

"You're underestimating me, aren't you!"

Knowing how proud she was of her skill and strength as a warrior, he raised his hands to placate her.

"No, I'm not. I just-"

He wanted to say that he was afraid for her safety, and that he did not want anything bad to happen to her. But he stopped himself in time, sensing that he would only be digging his grave deeper if he implied she was not strong enough to keep herself safe.

"Just...you be careful too, okay?" he finished in a small voice.

Having made her point, Wonder Woman did not insist on starting an argument. She nodded at him seriously.

Naruto clenched his hand into a fist and raised it in front of her. Diana looked at his extended fist and then back at him, understanding his wordless suggestion. She raised her fist too and bumped it against his.

Her eyes widened in surprise when a rush of feelings and thoughts flooded her. His unconditional love for her. His desire to spend the rest of his life with her. His secret thirst for a good battle against a worthy opponent. His desire to for her to be happy. His respect for her. His worries for her safety. His fear of being alone. At that moment, the princess understood him completely.

When he moved his fist away, their spiritual connection broke off too. But she could not tear her eyes away from his, overwhelmed by that unprecedented experience. She had never been connected to someone on a spiritual level like that.

"Let's do our best," he said and smiled at her softly.

She nodded her head vigorously, not trusting her voice to speak at that moment.

Then, he turned his attention back to the battlefield. He had never been worried about the fox. As his lifelong best friend, Naruto knew exactly just how powerful Kyuubi was. His only worry had been for Diana. But after sharing a fist bump with her he was no longer anxious about her safety anymore. He understood her feelings and thoughts perfectly as well.

His eyes became sharp and his demeanour abruptly changed. The aura he exuded became like an unsheathed blade and a cloak of yellow-red chakra appeared around his body as he entered his tailed beast chakra mode. Then, he blurred out from existence.

An instant later, a silhouette teleported right between Hera and Hades, completely bypassing her protective sphere of magic.

"Konoha Senpuu!"

The heels of his combat boot suddenly smashed into Hera's and Hades's jaws at the same time as Naruto performed a whirlwind flying kick. It was one of his former comrades' favourite taijutsu moves, the speciality of Might Guy and Rock Lee.

The two Olympian Gods were kicked in the face and hurled away in opposite directions as if a truck had smashed into their faces.

"Diana!" he shouted.

The Amazon princess's answer was to erupt with a powerful battle cry.

Hera had yet to even crash on the ground after being kicked in the face when Diana body-slammed into her with her golden shield. Spittle flew out of her mouth when the wind was knocked out of her and her body left a sonic boom behind from the force of the shield bash.

Physically stronger than Hera and more adept in battle, Hades righted his body in the air and flipped back to land on his feet.

"You dare strike a god?" he yelled in fury.

But Naruto did not entertain him with a verbal answer. He conjured a swirling sphere of energy above his head, an Oodama Rasengan that was even bigger than his own body. Faster than the naked eye could follow, he appeared in front of the god and pushed the enormous Rasengan into him, intent on grinding his body into a bloody paste.

However, when he smashed the Oodoma Rasengan against Hades, it was as if a regular person tried to push a train. The god had caught his Rasengan with one of his hands effortlessly and then slapped it away with the other one as if it was a beach ball. A large crater was carved into the ground when the big ball of chakra blew up.

Lifting himself up from the crater, Naruto frowned. He was unhurt but that degree of magic resistance shown by the Olympian God and his insane physical strength was not good news.

'If I had access to natural energy...' he thought disgruntled. While in his Six Path Sage Mode, he could lift hundreds of tons and level mountains with his punches alone. He would not be afraid of a physical confrontation even against a god. The current situation, however, required him to avoid meeting Hades' hits with his body. Nevertheless, he was no longer a one-trick pony like in his youth. He had other methods of dealing with his enemies too.

Hades's face lost its human appearance and transformed into that of a demon. His skin became grey, two horns grew out of his forehead, his teeth transformed into fangs and his eyes became red. Opening his mouth, an enormous fireball came out from it, like a fire breath.

Naruto rolled to the side and jumped to avoid it. Fireball after fireball was shot from Hades's mouth but he was too agile for them to meet their mark.

Enraged at his futile efforts, Hades stomped his foot. The ground cracked and ruptured and skeletons started crawling out. They were not just human skeletons. There were also centaurs, serpents, enormous centipedes, and even a few very large bone dragons. Furthermore, a buzzing noise was heard in the next moment and the pitch-black sky of Tartarus became dark red in the distance. Red because of the red eyes of tens of thousands of demons rushing to answer the call of their god.

Floating in mid-air with his arms crossed, Hades looked down at the masked mortal man arrogantly.

"Do you realize now how powerless you are? You are but a man. But this is my realm. And I am a GOD. Attacking the God of the Underworld in his own domain? How foolish!"

Despite the overwhelming number of undead beings surrounding him from all sides and the tens of thousands of demons closing in from the distance, Naruto was perfectly calm. He was even relaxed enough to peek at the situation on the other side of the battlefield.

The battle between Kyuubi and the God of Monsters, Typhon... ...it could not even be called a battle. It was a one-sided beatdown. Typhon was doing everything in his power to attack his foe, shooting hellfire, creating vortexes of wind, spitting clouds of poison and even breaking off parts of his body to create monsters to aid him in battle. But it was all for nought. A mere swipe of the demonic beast's tails was enough to squash the monsters he created into a gory paste, the vortexes of wind could barely ruffle his crimson-red fur, and the hellfire and the clouds of poison could not even get into Kyuubi's proximity as the fox's roar produced shockwaves capable of flattening and blowing away everything in their path. In front of absolute strength, all of Typhon's abilities appeared to be insignificant. Typhon had already died and regenerated himself nearly 10 times in less than 10 minutes.

Noticing Naruto paying attention to the fighting between the two gigantic beings instead of focusing on him, Hades started to become angry. The man in front of him was too relaxed.

'Either he's too stupid to know he's about to die. Or he is confident that I can't hurt him.'

At that thought, his ire flared. To think that there would come a day when a mortal would treat him with such disrespect! The bone dragons that he had summoned opened their gigantic jaws and their breath attacks covered the sky. Fire, poison and lightning incinerated and melted everything in their path, not caring about allies or foes.

Despite the ferocity of the dragon breath attacks, a dagger suddenly pierced through them unaffected and Hades barely had enough time to lean his head to the side. Though the tri-pronged dagger only left a bloodied scratch on his cheek, Hades was unconcerned. It was going to heal up in a matter of seconds.

However, in the instant that the dagger flew past his head, with a hand on the handle of the tri-pronged dagger and the other hand holding a purple-coloured Yin Release Rasengan, Naruto appeared behind him like a ghost. The god had not even noticed his actions until the sphere of Yin chakra slammed into the back of his head.

There were no explosions. Hades could not even feel any pain. He was not wounded at all. But when he wanted to turn around to face his enemy, his heart jumped to his throat. He could not control his body! He was paralyzed. The Yin Rasengan's purpose was not to injure him but to immobilize him.

An aura of lightning magic burst behind his back and his fear seemed to double his strength. His body started to shake and it looked like he was going to regain control over his movements in a matter of seconds.

'Damned magic resistance. This is ridiculous.' Naruto cussed.

But he did not stay idle. His tailed beast chakra mode transformed into a cloak of yellow-red lightning. It was a version of the 3rd Raikage's lightning armour adapted to his usage of Kyuubi's chakra.

'A grinding attack like a Rasengan isn't a good match because of his incredibly high magic resistance as a god. I need a piercing attack. Without my Six Paths, this is the strongest piercing attack I have.'

He clenched his right hand into a fist and a large portion of the lightning crackling around his body gathered to his fist. Then, he extended just his index finger. It was the last and most powerful stage of Hell Stab.

It took only 2 seconds for him to power up his attack. But due to his panic or maybe because of a rush of adrenaline, the god somehow managed to regain a part of his control over his movements. At the very last moment, when Naruto's lightning attack was about to stab through his back, into his heart, Hades twisted his body around. The Hell Stab landed on his shoulder instead of piercing his back.

A sharp grating sound was heard as the lightning jutsu was unable to pierce through the black pauldron covering Hades's shoulder, only managing to scratch it a little.

The god kicked him in the gut with all his strength, blowing him away like a cannonball and bursting into loud laughter.

"This armour was forged for me by Hephaistos, the God of Fire and Blacksmiths. Your puny magic attacks can't even leave a scratch on me. My armour will parry everything you can possibly throw at me! Hahaha!"

Naruto coughed a bit from the kick that landed into his gut and pulled himself up from the crater his body made when he crashed but he was not wounded.

'So his armour is just as tough as Diana's bracelets, huh?'

Lightning suddenly discharged from his body in a radius of 100 feet around him, turning all the skeletons in his range that were trying to attack him into dust. Sharp swishing sounds reached his ears and he quickly disappeared with a body flicker movement, evading the arrows shot by several dozens of centaur skeletons at the same time.

But then, it started to rain with fire from above. A vanguard of several hundred demons from the immense horde in the distance had managed to enter the battlefield much faster than he had expected.

Naruto unexpectedly stopped in his tracks and slapped his hands together in a prayer. Over a hundred arrows whistled through the air in his direction but his Raiton no Yoroi (lightning armour) stopped them all just a few inches away from piercing his body. In the next moment, a terrible gravity encompassed an area of over 600 feet around him. Just like he had once killed the squad of Gordanians that had tried to capture Starfire in Jump City, he used the same technique this time too. The hundreds of demons spitting fire at him from above suddenly lost their ability to fly and crashed into the rocky and ashy ground, to their death.

But his victory was short-lived because right away, several bone dragons fired their breath attacks at him. The entire area was obliterated. Both Naruto and the skeletons and demons around him were reduced to cinders.

Hades was just about to celebrate his triumph when he was suddenly kicked in the back of his legs. Before he could make sense of the situation - he had watched the mortal die with his own eyes, how could he still be alive!? - the god found himself on his knees. Following that, a huge Rasengan smashed into the side of his head, into his temple, and exploded.

Slightly dizzy and with a bit of blood flowing from a scratch on his temple, he tried to stand up but a kick to the face threw him back onto the ground again. Then, 4 Shadow Clones suddenly popped into existence and grabbed him each from one of his limbs.

With a scream of anger, Hades yanked his arms and legs with all his strength but the 4 clones holding his limbs suddenly became over 100 times heavier. It was an Earth Release technique that could increase an object's weight many times over, depending on the need. Granted, since Naruto could not use his Sage Mode in Tartarus, the Shadow Clones were crushed by their own weight, unable to even stand on their feet. Regardless, they achieved their purpose: to pin Hades down.

Floating at a high altitude in the air above Hades, Naruto raised his hand above his head and two other chakra arms grew out from his cloak. A purple-black sphere of chakra started to take form in the palm of his right hand. It was different from his previous Yin Rasengan. Way different. Just the size alone was even larger than Naruto's own body. It was a tailed beast bomb.

"Magic resistance? You can parry all my attacks? Parry this you fucking casual!"

Hades screamed. It was a scream of fear and despair.

For the first time in its existence, the realm of the dead saw light. It was as if a Sun was born. For several moments, everything became white as a blinding light robbed everyone of their sight and a cataclysmic explosion boomed. It was like a nuclear bomb.

⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂

AN: Tartarus arc is close to completion. The next chapter will be the last of this mini-arc. Until next time!

(1) It is mentioned in Homer's Iliad.

(2) Hades really did kick everyone's ass in that episode. In his first apparition in the Justice League animated series, Hades was OP.