The Alpha…

It has been long enough.

The final chapter begins, and just in time for Christmas.

Without any further ado, Backup Plan: ARMAGEDDON!

Disclaimer: Naruto and all affiliates are owned by Misashi Kishimoto, and Percy Jackson and the Olympians and all affiliates are owned by Rick Riordan.

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When Shin'en's eyes snapped open, his brain was awash in a tidal wave of information.

Firstly was the clothes on his body: it was not his usual outfit. Gone was his Akatsuki cloak, his pants, the pouches at his waist, the sandals and the legwarmers. In their place was what Shin'en decided was a set of shoulder pads, hip pads, thigh pads, knee pads, cleats, a cup against his crotch, a pad at his tailbone, and the pressure around his head coupled with the bars limiting his vision could only mean a helmet.

Sweet Jesus, he was wearing American football gear, and judging by everything he was seeing, he was on the field, and it was game night.

Two Planck seconds later, his hearing kicked in about the same time his hydro-sensing kicked in—and his nose as he took a breath, making him note with extreme confusion as to why the ai quality of New York was as clean and untainted as the Shinobi World—and he was thrown for a loop so wide at what he was registering, that he would've thought himself dreaming had he not literally been able to sense the water in the air, and the water in the people in the stands.

"Woo-hoo~! Go Percy~!"

Even amidst all the cheering already going on from the five thousand-plus crowd, Persephone still made her voice heard…from the sideline…where the cheerleaders were. Shin'en locked into investigating that area first, and he nearly fainted.

The cheer squad was totally consistent of demigoddesses, which meant that whatever high school this was—Goode, if Shin'en was correct—was seeing a cheer dream team that it would never see again. There was Persephone, Annabeth, Piper, Hazel, Reyna, Clarisse, Rachel Elizabeth Dare, Katie and Miranda Gardner, Samirah al Abbas, Sadie Kane, and Zia Rashid.

And yes, it was Goode High School, as indicated by their uniforms.

That combination didn't make a lick of sense to Shin'en, as confused as he already was, he was certain that during this time, in which they were all of high school age, all of those people should've been scattered across the continent. It got a whole lot worse when Shin'en directed his attention to the football team, and noted all the demigods present.

Currently on the field with him, and based on the arrangement, they were ready to perform the kick return, was Jason directly to his right, meaning that the son of Jupiter was KR2, and he, Shin'en, was KR1, and in front of them as the second line was Walt Stone, Carter Kane, Dakota, son of Bacchus, and Amir Fadlan, Samirah's betrothed. In the front line was Frank, Michael Kahale, Will Solace, Chris Rodriguez, and Travis Stoll.

Whoever the ball was about to be kicked to had a guaranteed touchdown, as none of the boys out here were mortals. No, Shin'en could tell by the magical energy coming off of them, and by how their DNA was literally incomplete—due to how acute his hydro-sensing really was—that they were all demigods.

Turning his attention to the sideline, Shin'en noted other demigods, and looking up in the stands, where the band was, he noted even more demigods, though those two areas were more heavily populated with mortal students. Also in the stands were the twelve Olympian gods, Hades, Hestia, and a whole host of other gods, most notably the goddess Persephone, Triton, and Amphitrite. The scariest part was that all of camps Half-Blood and Jupiter were there, and all of the demigods were sitting around their respective parents, and all the gods were getting along.

The Big Three weren't bickering amongst themselves, having a dick measuring contest. Zeus' godly sons weren't antagonizing their siblings but were playing nice. Hera wasn't moody and sour, and seemed to thoroughly enjoying the presence of her stepchildren. Amphitrite and Sally were chatting like old friends, as were Triton and—Naruko.

But not just the blonde, blue-eyed beauty, it was the pregnant blonde, blue-eyed beauty, and with his acute godly senses, that child in her, six months along given the size, was his.

The anti-shinobi nearly fell over right then and there.

His body locked up, however, preventing from actually falling, due to the shock of yet another piece of information that added to this already confusing pile of puzzle pieces: there, hidden in the shadows on top of the stadium's humongous press box, were four black-clad individuals with grinning masks of alabaster white on their faces.

The sounds of all the cheering faded away, and Shin'en could only hear the sound of his heart thumping like the cadence of the far-outdated war drum used during the likes of the American Revolution.

What was going on here?

Where was he? An alternate dimension? He could feel the chakra running through his coils, strong as it ever was, and he could feel the chakra in Naruko, their baby, and in Yūrei, and he could feel the divine power brimming off the gods and demigods, and also up in the stands were Magnus Chase, Alex Fierro, TJ Jr., Halfborn Gunderson, and Mallory Keen, all of them physically dead, all of them einherjar.

Greco-Romans, Egyptians, Norse—characters from all the books were here in this one spot, all apparently attending Goode High School, strongly indicating that Shin'en was somehow stuck in some High School AU—thankfully not a mortal AU; if that were the case, he probably would've jumped the gun already and slaughtered the whole stadium—and he had no idea how he got here.

He had no idea how Naruko was here, and as to why she was pregnant, yeah, she and him had some very long, passionate nights of sex together after she found him and Akatsuki at the western border of the known world, but she couldn't have been so far along as she was, they had both taken steps to prevent a pregnancy in the first place.

As for Yūrei being alive, as for them being here, watching him play football in the presence of his overly extended family…that didn't make a lick of sense.

It was impossible. It was improbable. He had seen them beheaded, their heads mounted on pikes in public, and then he had destroyed their bodies in a justified episode of total fury. The fact that it was so wrong for them to be alive and well was what was blocking Shin'en from immediately leaping right up to them to tackle them all in a bone-crushing group hug.

An attosecond finally passed since Shin'en noted Yūrei's presence and had all of these inner thoughts, and something else finally occurred to him after he tried to remember what had happened earlier this day:

He couldn't remember a single thing that happened this day.

That was impossible. He had an ever-active photographic memory and the Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan, and with the countermeasures he had in place in the event of divine memory tampering, there was no way he could ever have amnesia, but that was just it: he remembered everything else.

Being at the orphanage, its destruction, his rampage, his dream, his time spent talking with Summer Rose in Remnant, his conversation with Susano'o, his training at the Cloud, Yugito, Killer Bee, Darui, Cee, the Third Raikage, Ay, the Fourth Raikage, Ei, his black-ops with Yūrei, his split personalities, Gatou, Kimiko, Sachiko, Amon, Hiyumi, Nanako, Saeko, and Shin. He remembered going back to the Cloud after killing Yagura, the Chunin Exams with Darui, Karui, and Omoi, the invasion, the battle with the Tailed-Beasts, all the shinobi, those he killed, the battle with Naruko and Sasuke, killing the Third Raikage, losing his arm, the period he was in his weakened state, amassing power, all the dimensional adventures he went on, the little twins that were his children, Ryuk, high school and the grocery store with Asteria, Annabeth, Hunter, and Gabe in the Xenophobic world, his return to the godly world to fight the Titans, his sixteenth birthday, his return to the Ninja World and borderline take-over of Akatsuki, training with those monsters, Naruko's arrival, the consummation of their love, and finally came the time to put everything into motion.

Naruko departed for the Leaf, Sasori and Deidara for the Hidden Sand, Hidan and Kakuzu for the Hidden Waterfall, he and Kisame for the Hidden Stone, Tobi and Zetsu for where reports of the Three-Tails were coming from, and Pain and Konan for where the Six-Tails Jinchuuriki was rumored to be. After that…

It was all blank.

Shin'en heard a low, slow sound, and it took him a second to realize that it was the referee blowing the whistle to start the game, and a whole new rush of questions ran through Shin'en's mind:

How was he supposed to behave?

What was he like?

Was he soft, couldn't hurt a fly?

Or was he like he usually was?

Really, all of these questions and more could be bunched under this one umbrella question: who was he in the apparent alternate dimension?

With the football rapidly spiraling through the air, coming right at him, Shin'en concluded that he was just going to have to wing it, pay attention to the crowd, and react accordingly. He was going to have to "put this game away," as the phrase went, meaning rack up enough points to where he could be pulled from the game and the backups could finish it out, leaving him ample time to think.

Shin'en caught the ball and was off, doing his absolute best to keep it at a believable speed for a teenager, and not turn anyone into tapioca with a slight shoulder check.

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Since the last chapter of Blood War contained both the epilogue for itself, and the prologue for this story, that gave me pass to simply jump right on into what you just read.

Confused?

I can understand why, but just go back over what's there: Persephone, the gods getting along with their children, Naruko being there and pregnant, Yūrei's alive…all things Shin'en's desperately wanted.

Think about it for a bit, but the answer will become clear next chapter, which'll be out after Christmas but before New Year's, I promise.

With all that being said, this is my Christmas gift to all of you, so Merry Christmas!