Caterpillar

Godhood

"Will you follow me to Olympus today?" Athena asked.

Naruto glanced at the slumbering fox on his shoulder and then at the bloodied appearance of Wonder Woman.

"No. We need some rest. We can't start a war now. Not when we are not at our best."

Planting Hiraishin markers on his spaceship and on satellites outside of every planet he visited, using shadow clones to investigate his enemies before attacking, keeping an eye on his chakra consumption, trying to think of strategies when fighting against powerful foes instead of just throwing flashy techniques around, carrying nutritional pills in case he remained stranded in space, refusing to accept the bounty of assassinating Darkseid in his own homeworld and so on - these were just a few examples that spoke of his cautious nature. Nearly a century of adventuring in a world different from his own was enough to smarten up even a blockhead like his teenage self. He would never be considered academically smart or a genius but a lifetime of experiences had made him a wiser person. That said, he was definitely not going to fight against the alleged king of the Olympian gods unless he, Kurama, and Diana were at their 100%.

"Understandable." the goddess acknowledged. A peculiar pendant appeared in her hand. It was made of stone, circular, and it depicted the head of a screaming woman with snakes for hair. It looked like Medusa's head. Handing it to the Amazon princess, she said: "Take your time and recover. When you are ready, you can use this relic to summon me."

A blue light shone from the goddess's palm and a human-sized oval portal appeared. Naruto secretly glanced at her with a calculative look in his eyes.

'Hades is supposed to be a major god according to Diana, he's the God of the Underworld. He can't make portals to escape from this realm... but Athena can. She also took one of my tailed beast bombs and survived. I better not take her lightly if we crossed paths again in the future.' he mused.

⁂

"I'm so tired. And filthy." Wonder Woman grumbled.

After more than 24 hours of sweating in the pits of Tartarus, slaying demons, and cutting a goddess in half, her appearance was a far cry from usual. It was only after stepping out of the portal and setting foot on Themyscira that she became aware of her deplorable state. Dried blood, ash, dirt, and sweat covered her from head to toes. It made her long black hair itchy and scruffy and her skin clammy. She did not remember if she had ever been so dirty.

"Ah, my cloak is ruined." she bemoaned when she looked at her previously white cloak. It had more than one hole in it and its colour was unrecognizable with all the stains and dirt on it.

Her white and golden breastplate, her greaves, her pauldrons, her bracelets, and her tiara were of a magical nature. It was an armour set crafted for her by the God of Fire, Hephaestus. It would be very easy to clean. However, her ear-wing ornaments and her white cloak could not be salvaged. They were ordinary objects that she wore just to make herself look more fashionable. A warrior she may have been but she was a woman at the same time too. She liked to kick ass but she wanted to look good while doing it too.

"Why are even wearing that cloak? Doesn't it get in the way? You'd be lying if you told me nobody tried to grab you by the cloak and slam you around." he said snidely and sniggered.

She threw a mean look at him. "The pot calling the kettle black. You're wearing a cloak too!"

He grinned at her and said: "Well then, be my guest. Try to grab me by my cloak."

She huffed at him and quickly grabbed the edge of his fur-collared black cloak. But, to her surprise, the buttons holding it together around his neck snapped and she pulled the cloak directly off him. When she threw it to the side, her eyes widened as she found herself with the blade of a dagger pointed at her neck.