Storm of the North

Chapter 17

Q&A

Guess who's back? Back again. Yes I'm back, tell a friend.

Kingslanding, 298 AC

Getting Sansa talking with Joffrey wasn't really manipulating someone. More of, giving someone an idea of what they should do. Hardly even a push. The girl had started making a jacket for the boy with Baratheon and Lannister imagery. Even the Queen had gotten a bit involved when she saw how hard the girl was trying to please her son, buying Sansa exotic leathers, dyes and fabrics to make it as fine and showy as possible. Good thing the Stark guards had long known the advantage of listening close to what is said.

The boy was definitely a braggart. He told Sansa tales of his 'accomplishments'. Yeah, the boy who lost to a little girl was definitely capable of fighting Ser Barristan to a standstill. Naruto was barely capable of that when Barristan was younger and already a bit tired from the battle where they faced off. He still wasn't completely sure of what would happen if they truly clashed. The man had years of experience on even Arthur Dayne and the last time those two faced off for a bout, they came to a standstill. The man still did his morning exercises and sparred with men decades his younger daily, including with Naruto when they had the chance. Naruto hadn't even seen the boy wielding a blade since they arrived to Kingslanding. Oh, sure he carried a fine flashy blade around him constantly, but swinging that blade was a whole other thing.

He was bragging, but he wasn't bragging about the right thing. This would take some time.

The tourney had shaped up nicely. They now had the tourney grounds prepared. But as the time for it got closer, Robert was becoming even more annoying than usual. Seems he wanted Naruto to participate in the tourney and no matter how many times he was told 'no', he still kept at it. Naruto was all for beating in another man's head in a battle or even having a grand melee with those he considered friends. What he wasn't a fan of, was jousting or competing because some fat fuck said they could command him to do it. That'd be the day when Robert forced Naruto to do anything. After which Robert would be missing his head.

More to the point, Naruto had heard a few whispers of something happening in Essos. Unrest and certain people going missing seemed to be the biggest concern. More so was the message that found it's way to him. It had simply said 'He left us, alongside some others' and was marked with the Uchiha clans fan. He had no idea when the message had been sent or from what location it came from originally. Now, he had the headache of possibly dealing with foreign assassins coming into the city at a time when foreigners took the chance to come and sell their wares. He could only guess that these clansmen would have black hair, but that could be changed with dyes. Naruto could only hope these guys were similar to Fugaku and would face him in equal combat and not go North. So, here's hoping Fugaku taught his son the old ways and said son could keep his associates in line.

A few days later, Naruto was walking back from the docks, where he'd been monitoring some shipments of fruit, wine and exotic meats alongside other valuables. The real valuables, not that most people cared, were the rumors they heard from the east. The khalasar were on the move and a knight with a bear was with them. Jorah seemed to be finding employment. What a coincidence.

As he contemplated on the Targaryen situation, for Jon it would have looked like he froze in his stride for a moment, but to others the break in his stride didn't stick out. He felt the eyes on him and badly hidden bloodlust. Clearly they weren't comfortable coming after him amongst the people, but these ones weren't ready to take him on. They'd be lucky if they could take on Jon with the subtlety they had. Naruto let out a breath of frustration through his nose. He headed for the Red Keep, but didn't walk in to the keep. He walked to the gardens, and took to moving deeper in to the foliage, to a more shadowed place. No one wanted to stay on this side, this time of the day at least. No good sunshine with the trees and quite damp. Naruto moved until he came upon an opening with a few rock benches and no guards or servants present.

Naruto hummed, sat on a bench and got to waiting. He listened to the cacophony of birds and insects in the piece of nature around him. Soon enough, he could feel eyes on him again. He got up from the bench, cracking his back dramatically, then cracking his knuckles.

"Come on out! I don't have all day for this shit!" Naruto declared in a clear voice. For a moment nothing happened. Then three shapes emerged from the shadows of the trees. All wore Uchiha clothes and light armor.

One was clearly older that the others, with graying, shorter hair sticking up from his head, eyes squinting at Naruto with a slim face with sunken cheeks. The man on his right had longer shoulder length dark hair that was cut even, with tear tracks reminiscent of Itachi's and dark, red speckled eyes that glared Naruto. The man on the left was about the same age as the man on the right side, but his hair was dull-black, shorter on the front and longer on the back with a decorative circle on his forehead with the distinctive Uchiha eyes, but his gaze was focused and neutral.

Naruto let his arms hang on his sides loosely and spoke "This one is Naruto of clan Uzumaki, I salute you Uchiha. May I have you names?"

The glaring one on the right barked "What use it to give our names to dead man?!" an broke ranks by dashing forward, with the other young man following after him, despite the oldest one of the group shouting at them to stop. In the moment the man on the right leaned forward to rush Naruto, Naruto's hand was already reaching for the blade hidden beneath his jacket on his back. It was similar to the one he'd gifted Jon before Naruto left towards south.

The first man had drawn his shortsword into an up-head swing. Naruto's blade countered from the side while moving his body from the way while grasping the attackers swordhand. Before the Uchiha realized what had happened, Naruto's blade cut in to the side of the Uchiha's neck. Instinctively the Uchiha's free hand went to the wound to try and stop the bleeding. Naruto wrenched away the man's sword, only to kick him in the side, pushing him in front of the other young one. The second attacked was momentarily stunned in confusion as his clansman stumbled in to his arms for help. His confusion turned to shock as his friends blade pierced out from the dying man's neck, cutting into his own face. The last thing he would see, was Naruto pushing the blade deeper in to both men.

As the younger men fell to the ground, Naruto turned to look at the oldest and remaining one. The older man grit his teeth.

"Want to give your name old timer? You can also give the names of these ones even if their ambitions exceeded their skills." Naruto sighed.

"Inabi and Tekka Uchiha. I thought I'd taught them that this wasn't personal. But Sasuke… the boy is too good at riling up the younger ones." The old man spoke sadly "This one is Yashiro of clan Uchiha. I'm here to see if I can do better than my old friend Fugaku."

Naruto chuckled loudly "Some goal you've set yourself, Yashiro. A pretty high achievement if you wish to do better than Fugaku. Still, before we begin I need to ask: Is Sasuke in this city?"

"No, he's no here. And as a courtesy, he's not alone either." Yashiro spoke, drawing his shortsword.

Naruto nodded, and like that Yashiro advanced. He moved quickly, but didn't rush, his stance stable and balanced. Naruto lowered his stance and got ready to counter. Yashiro's thrust was fast and precise, but so was Naruto. It was aimed at Naruto's head and a lesser fighter would have died right then and there. Naruto deflected and dodged. This man… his swordsmanship was better than Fugaku's. He wasn't necessarily stronger or the better killer, but in a sword duel he could challenge Naruto, Jaime, Arthur or Barristan with skill alone. That was commendable. But this wasn't a duel in traditional sense of the knights of Westeros. This was a duel between two killers, meaning: as Naruto redirected another thrust, his left hand suddenly flicked something into Yashiro's leg. A dart sunk into Yashiro's thigh making him flinch and backing away from the younger fighter.

Yashiro subtly glanced down at his leg. It had a single small dart sticking out. The situation had been reversed quite quickly. The dart limited Yashiro's movement. He couldn't feel any poison entering his body, but he needed the dart out if the wanted to win. In order to achieve that, he'd have to split his focus with removing it and Naruto who would capitalize on that split moment to press his advantage. His mind was racing with the possible methods he had in his disposal. In that moment Yashiro's focus peaked, same as Naruto's. Yashiro's left hand traveled lower on the handle of his blade until he was holding it's end. Then he twisted it and thrust. The end of the sword came off, and a plume of thick smoke spread as the sword was thrown towards Naruto. A smoke-bomb hidden in the blade for emergencies.

Yashiro's right hand grabbed the dart, and yanked it out as his left arm had moved to grab the dagger on his belt. He drew the blade, shifting it to his right hand and readying himself. A moment of silence and the smoke bulged subtly on his right side and Yashiro darted forward to intercept the Uzumaki. What came out, was Naruto's jacket tied to the thrown sword, to carry as much air as possible. Yashiro's mind was grinding to a halt seeing the contraption, his senses screaming at him to dodge. Then he felt Naruto's blade piercing his lower back as the younger man crashed into his left side. He tried to go for a stab at Naruto's neck, but it was stopped by Naruto's hand clamping on to Yashiro's right wrist, pinning it to the ground. Naruto twisted the blade in his lower back, and drew it out, cutting out through Yashiro's side in a shower of gore. Before Yashiro could begin drowning in his own blood, Naruto stabbed his blade through the base of the older man's skull. Yashiro was limp as Naruto got off him, drawing the blade out.

Naruto breathed in deeply a couple of times as he got up and stared down at Yashiro's corpse. He then spoke quietly "You were great old man. If it was you on that ship during the rebellion, I most likely wouldn't have been here. The greatsword I carried then would have slowed me down and I'd been pierced by those thrusts. So, thank you for not being there." Naruto then took back his jacket, the only piece of his clothing that wasn't bloodied. He then grabbed the sword the jacket had been tied to and cut off the heads of the Uchiha, dragging the headless bodies to a cliffside nearby and threw them into the waves below alongside the weapons of the assassins. He wrapped the head in cloth and headed back towards their dwelling while here. He was quite sure Jon and Lyanna would have their own troubles from the Uchiha. Joffrey was an annoyance. Robert was an annoyance. This Sasuke prick was now getting on his nerve. Things that really got on his nerve usually didn't live extremely long. Naruto would have to fix the problem of Sasuke being alive as soon as possible.

To be continued…

Reviews always appreciated! Got my damn computer back yesterday, finally.