A Simple Teenage Shop Owner

40

Where had it all gone wrong? What wrong turn had he taken in life that landed him at a table in the middle of Los Angeles, sitting across from the leader of the Greek pantheon while his own personal group of dragons and devils sat by his side? How bad had he rolled on the dice that determined his luck in life?

"Look, I'm sorry for all the confusion and misconceptions, man."

The baritone voice forced his focus back into the reality of the moment. Zeus, in all of his mighty glory, sat at the opposite end of the table, his fingers covered in BBQ sauce while the bones of several chicken wings sat on neatly on a porcelain plate.

"I get a pretty bad rep nowadays. Lesson to you kids, your past mistakes and infidelities will follow you for the rest of your life, even if that life goes on for thousands of years."

The man let out a laugh at his own words, unknowingly sending bits of the sauce spilling from his mouth onto his pristine toga. Before the sauce could stain, it was lifted from the white sheets as if by magic, leaving them as pure as they had been moments before.

"Now, I'm putting that all behind me. I'm moving forward with life. And to move forward, I need to get rid of some things from my past."

The man unceremoniously dropped the wing he was holding before he began to dig into his robe. The group of four watched him blindly search through his robes for a few moments before a pleased look announced that he had found his treasure.

"Here we go!"

With a loud bang, the object came clattering onto the table. Every single eye at the table gravitated toward the object; It was hard for them not to. The thing was large, brassy, shining and immaculate. Not to mention that it was covered from top to bottom with jewels.

"What was that?"

From a glance the identity of the object was pretty clear despite his questioning. The thing was a crown, its shining surface and the jewels embedded in it made that very clear to them all. The sinking feeling in his stomach was only beginning to confirm the words that would undoubtedly come out of the god's mouth.

"It's the crown of Olympus!"

Those were the words. Naruto sunk down in his seat with a sigh, his plate of fries untouched. By his side Lilith and Ophis didn't seem the least bothered by the man's words while they collectively munched on a plate of nachos. Koneko seemed to be the only one who felt his misfortune as she scooted closer to his left.

"Well, to be fair, it's just a crown." The god scooped the object back up into his hands then placed it on his head. "There's nothing special about it. You don't put it on and become the chief god or anything like that."

Another laugh escaped the god's mouth as he set the crown back down and with it, Naruto's confusion began to grow. The situation itself was extremely baffling and the god's flippant attitude wasn't helping a bit when it came to him coping.

Koneko, on the other hand, seemed perfectly fine with the situation. She made that very clear to everyone at the table when she reached across it and grabbed the crown off the table. With a level of frivolous that shouldn't be possible when holding the crown to the pantheon, the girl plopped then plopped the crown on her head.

"The crown looks good on ya!"

Zeus barked out the words along with a laugh. The sight of his girlfriend wearing the crown left Naruto, once again, speechless. His eyes met with hers before a brief instant before a tug at his arm made him look away.

"I think it's looks nice."

Lilith's words and earnest gaze made him nearly fall out of his chair. Yet, he managed to keep himself up right.