Luke leaned against the weathered porch railing of Cabin Eleven, his nose buried in his book. But his ears were tuned to the chaotic breathing of the thirty children sprawling across the grass in front of him.
It had been two months since the claiming, and along with Luke quietly turning ten, he had taken it upon himself to stay busy. It was still strange to have siblings. But it had given him boost, a burning desire to enhance Camp Half-Blood. I have to protect my pack.
So here he was, supervising the developments of thirty prospective young shinobi *cough* demigods.
"Maa, Toby," Luke said without looking up from his book. "Your left foot is heavy. If you keep dragging it like that, you're just announcing your arrival to the entire valley."
Toby Miller, a scrawny ten-year-old with perpetually messy hair, froze in his tracks. He'd been trying to sneak up to Luke for ten minutes. "How do you even do that? You didn't even look!"
"I have very attentive ears, Toby," Luke chirped, finally closing his book with a soft thwack. He looked at the gathered group. They were a ragtag bunch of kids who he'd pulled from the Hermes cabin. A mix of claimed and unclaimed gremlins from ages 6 to 12.
To name a few there was Sarah Jenkins, a quiet eleven-year-old daughter of Hermes who was extremely good with a lockpick; Toby Miller, a ten-year-old unclaimed boy with was obsessed with winning; little Maya Thorne, another six year old daughter of Hermes who clutched a blunted bronze practice dagger like it was a holy relic; Travis and Connor, his younger twin brothers, aged seven who were a perpetual menace to control.
Ethan Nakamura, an unclaimed eight year old with a perpetual scowl who had taken to shadowing Luke's every step after Luke promised him "unholy vengeance on those who have wronged him". The kid may have taken it a little too literally. Luke mused. Eh, a little righteous vengeance never hurt anyone.
"Alright," Luke said, sliding off the railing with effortless grace. "Since we've been focused on taijutsu, and weapons mastery for the last two months, I thought we'd try something different."
"Like what?" Leo, his cute younger brother asked, eyes wide.
"Trap setting," Luke said, his eye-smile appearing. "And a bit of unconventional movement."
For the next three hours, the area behind Cabin Eleven became a makeshift training ground. Luke moved among them silently, his touch light as he corrected their stances. He taught them the shinobi way. He taught them how to use their smaller size to enter someone's blind spot, how to move silently, and he showed Sarah how to tie a tripwire using nothing but sewing thread and a heavy pebble.
"The goal isn't to be the strongest," Luke explained, helping Toby adjust a snare he'd hidden under a pile of leaves. "The goal is to win. To survive another day. If you fight fair, you've already made a tactical error. Choose your battles wisely, and importantly, booby trap the living hell out of it"
"But the Ares kids say that's cowardly," Leo whispered, looking at a cleverly hidden pitfall trap they'd just finished.
"Maa, Leo," Luke said, ruffling the boy's hair. "The Ares kids are often the ones who end up in the infirmary with their pride intact but their ribs in pieces."
As he watched them scramble around, setting traps (mostly consisting of buckets of water and piles of marbles) and practicing their footwork, a wave of nostalgia washed over him. They reminded him of the Academy students back in Konoha, bright-eyed, eager, and dangerously untrained.
They're like puppies, Luke thought, watching Toby accidentally trip over Maya and begin loudly accusing her of sabotaging is "victory". Loud, clumsy puppies that need to be shown how to bite. Hehehe my little demigod shinobis.
He spent the afternoon sparring with them, one at a time. He moved at a fraction of his speed, letting them catch glimpses of his movements so they could learn. When Maya managed to actually tap his knee with her wooden dagger, Luke let out a genuine, delighted laugh.
"Excellent, Maya! You utilized the blind spot created by my own stance."
Maya cheered and launched herself at him, wrapping herself around his waist.
By dinner time, the kids were exhausted but glowing with a new sense of purpose.
"Hey, Luke," Sarah said, exhausted but smiling as they walked toward the mess hall. "Are you going to teach us more tomorrow? The stuff with the smoke bombs?"
Luke pulled out his book, his eye-smile glowing under the mask. "Only if you and the rest of the kids finish your chores, Sarah. A shinobi who can't keep their barracks clean only gets extra laps."
As he watched them run ahead, laughing and trying to 'ninja' past each other, Luke felt the weight of contentment settling in him. I'll never be able to go to Konoha again, but maybe I can bring a little bit of Konoha to Camp Half Blood.
One month later his ragtag group of demigod genins were huddled in a circle, whispering with the kind of intensity usually reserved for high-level assassination plots.
"Maa, Mantis," Luke said, his voice drifting lazily over the top of his book. "If you tuck that tripwire behind the hydrangea bush, the Ares kids will see the tension line. Put it in the shadow of the porch step."
Leo Vance looked up, eyes wide. "R-r-right! S-s-sorry, Luke!"
For the past month, Luke had been teaching them to be shinobi or at least, his version of them. He'd given them classic Konoha Anbu codenames. Leo was Mantis, Ethan was Porcupine, Sarah was Dove. The kids loved it
They were becoming a unit.
"Alright, gather 'round," Luke chirped, snapping his book shut. The kids scrambled over, sitting cross-legged in the grass. "The Athena cabin thinks they're the masters of strategy. They've planned a tactical acquisition' of our laundry detergent for tonight."
"What's the plan, Luke?" Maya asked, clutching a small bag of flour tightly.
"Simple," Luke said, his eye-smile radiating mischief. "We're going to use a classic Shinobi diversion. Mantis, you and Porcupine are on the bells.' Dove, you handle the 'Sticky Floor' jutsu near their entrance. Tiger (Maya)... you're the bait."
The prank war that followed that night was legendary.
In the dead of night, as the Athena campers crept toward Cabin Eleven, they weren't expecting opposition. As the first camper carefully stepped onto the steps leading up to the Hermes Cabin, they triggered a series of bells that alerted the entire camp.
TRIIIIIIIING.
"What the fuuuu——," an Athena camper cursed. "Retreat! Retreat!". As they rapidly scuttled backwards, they hit Sarah's cleverly placed "sticky mixture of doom", a mixture of honey and golden syrup that Luke had 'borrowed' from the mess hall.
"We're stuck!" "They planned for this!" "They knew we were coming!". The Athena campers cursed and blamed each other as they struggled to unstick their sandals.
Suddenly, Luke appeared on the roof of the Athena cabin, silhouetted against the moon.
"Maa, my foolish young owls," Luke called out, his voice carrying through the quiet night. "You forgot the first rule of engagement: never leave your own base unguarded while pursuing an objective."
With a flick of his wrist, he dropped a series of smoke bombs (actually just bags of flour and glitter). When the dust cleared, the Athena cabin's front door had been painted a bright, obnoxious shade of orange, and their strategic maps had been replaced by sketches of... well, Luke's 'artistic' renderings of satyrs conducting obscene acts with giant owls.
The next morning, the camp was in an uproar. The Ares cabin, roaring with laughter and jeering at the Athena Cabin's misfortune, soon found their own spears greased with pig fat, making them impossible to hold.
"You're a menace, Luke," Chris Rodriguez said at breakfast, trying to hide a grin as a frustrated Bruce tried to pick up a slippery spear. "The whole camp is on high alert."
Luke was unbothered, his nose buried in a new volume: The Siren's Secret Song. He was currently at a part involving a curious sea-nymph and a shipwrecked pirate.
"Maa, Chris," Luke murmured, a perverted giggle escaping his mask. "Pranks are just non-lethal combat. It keeps the gremlins sharp. Besides, did you see the way the Athena kids tried to form a phalanx in honey?"
Naruto would be so proud.
He reached out and patted Maya's head as she sat next to him, proud of her flour-bombing success.
They're learning, Luke thought, watching his little pack of demigods (genins). Give it a few more weeks, and they'll be ready for a real mission.
He vanished a piece of bacon under his mask with a lightning-fast blur.
I wonder if the Aphrodite girls have any more of that scented honey, he mused. The next chapter mentions a honey-themed bath, and I'm feeling... inspired.
‐———
Guesses for who Toby's parent is?? Ethan is obvious of course.
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