Storm of the North

Chapter 5

Did not update last weekend, because we had a birthday party for my mother. Spent the evening acting as a bartender.

Q&A

MInoka: The Uchiha will play a part. That's all I'm gonna say for now.

Jaykid1: Yep, it's always great to get such on-point comments. Like "You made Naruto a simp and a cuck". I always think that comments should actually give advice, not throw out terms aren't defined extremely well. I mean a cuck generally refers to someone giving a form of acceptance to being cheated on and simp, as I understand, is a term for someone who gives without receiving anything in return, just hoping for love or satisfaction. If you wanting to protect someone you care for and it's your job to protect them is simping, then sure, every bodyguard on the planet is a simp. Also, how can you cuck someone who wasn't interested in you yet.

Witerfell, 297 AC

Jon remembered the lesson as he gazed at the stag from his hiding place. He nocked his arrow and focused on his target. His target, right behind the stag's shoulder, broadside. The spot that has the heart, lungs and liver all in fairly close proximity.

Breathe in. Breathe out.

He brought his left arm forward as he drew the bow.

Breathe in. Breathe out.

He simply breathed for a moment, evening out his heartbeat. He could feel it across his body.

Breather in. Breathe out.

He could feel the tension in his muscles, straining against the drawn bow. The stag was still looking around on the shore. It's ears flicked, listening to any threats. Then finally, slowly, it dipped its head forward. Still glancing around, it began to drink the water.

Breathe in. Hold. Loose.

The arrow was swift. It hit the stag in its side. It cuts cleanly through. The stag staggers.

Breathe out. Nock another arrow, in case it runs. It doesn't. The stag's legs give out and it falls on its side. Jon rises, and calmly exists the tree line, walking towards his prey, the arrow still nocked. Naruto follows behind. Jon can see that the stag still breathes it's last. The light is still in the animal's eye. It wasn't going out fast enough for Jon. Killing was one thing. Torture was another. He walked around the stag so he had a clear view of its neck and head.

Breathe in. Breathe out.

He again drew his bow, and walked closer to his target.

Breathe in. Hold. Loose.

*Thunk* the arrow hit. Right in to the base of the skull. No more breathing.

Breathe out.

Naruto patted him on his shoulder. Then he began tying the stag's legs together. It wasn't terribly big, nothing to tell tales about. But it wasn't small either. Average. Jon retrieved his arrows, examined them and placed the back in his quiver. When the stag's legs were tied, he helped secure it on Naruto's back. They began trekking back, Naruto carrying the prize, Jon watching the forest around them for threats.

They walked without speaking, both enjoying the silence. In time they made their way back to Winterfell. As soon as they exited the tree-line Jon started asking how he did. Naruto assured he did well, but reminded he was only part-way done. Jon silenced himself after that, focusing.

They made their way inside Winterfell and to the outside door of the kitchen. Before they left this morning, they had prepared a firm table and tools for the next part. Naruto placed the stag on the table. Jon undid the ropes and made sure that his knife was sharp enough. He then began skinning the stag. He had seen this done multiple times and had been allowed to perform parts of the skinning. Naruto was of the opinion every man should know how to hunt for food, prepare the ingredients and then cook the meat. He also thought that minimal waste was necessary. He'd told Jon that his clan had lived in a similar mindset since, when on the run, you can't be wasteful. Made sense, why waste what you work for?

Jon made a fairly good time. He didn't rush, and the meat loss was minimal. In the end, the stag was skinned. They took the meat they would eat tonight. The rest would be preserved. The skin they took to the tanner. The bones they hadn't decided what to do with yet, Naruto told Jon he had to make the decision, since it was his kill.

Next came what Jon was dreading about this lesson. The cooking. He knew how to roast something. But to actually make food? This was going to be new. And Naruto wouldn't be helping him. He would be guided by the women from the kitchen. He constantly blushed and clammed up when they teased him and commented that Jon should come work with them in the kitchen. The comments about him looking prettier than them didn't help. Naruto only smirked, following the lesson. Slowly but surely, Jon followed the instructions given to him. What he managed to make in the end, a simple meat soup, actually looked like food. More importantly, it also tasted like food. The servants also got a taste. The women wanted to have Jon there permanently. Jon escaped the kitchens with Naruto's laughter echoing in the hall.

Naruto took some of the soup to Lyanna. Jon was embarrassed again in the evening at dinner when Lyanna requested Jon make more food for her since the soup was so great. Arya got mad her favorite brother didn't bring her any and kicked Jon's shin. The little she-wolf was calmed somewhat when Jon promised he'd make some more the next day.

Theon tried to be an ass and claimed that working in the kitchen was just the place for Jon, since that's where servants and women belonged. Jon fired back with asking where cockless hostages belonged, since Theon seemed to talk a lot but had yet to beat Jon in even a practice fight, hadn't bedded a woman he hadn't paid for or even hunted any prey for himself. Jon added he doubted Theon could beat Arya or Sansa in a fight, which naturally got an agreement from Arya. The eight and ten year old became furious and jumped over the table at Jon. Jon only caught Theon's outstretched arms, pulling himself backwards and throwing Theon over himself. Theon wasn't prepared for the maneuver and landed on his lower back, drawing a squeal like yell from the older boy.

Ned could only pinch the bridge of his nose in stress. Cat started screeching, making Rickon cry. Arya was howling with laughter with Lyanna. Bran smiled. Sansa gasped, shocked. Robb called for servants to get Maester Luwin. Naruto messed Jon's hair with a smile.

The tournament was nearing. Today was a lesson but also training. Jon was allowed to participate in the competitions he wanted. He'd chosen archery, the 'youth-melee', unarmed fighting, sword dueling and free dueling.

The melee was meant to simulate a last man standing situation where all fighters entered as one. Dueling was fought one on one with swords, with free dueling accepting any blunted weapon to be used. Archery was…well an archery competition, the target being moved further away from the competitors until the winner remained. The prizes for each competition weren't as grand as a tourney down south, but they were open for all comers. The prizes for best three in were varied. The winner of a martial competition was promised a castle forged steel weapon and a bag of gold. The people in second and third place received a castle forged steel weapons, but no gold. If someone who wasn't exactly rich didn't win the main prize, you could still get a fair deal of money from a castle forged steel weapon, so a fair deal of the younger fighters wanted to compete, even if they were going against the children of the Nothern lords.

But the competitions weren't only limited to martial matters. They even had competitions for cooking, tracking, riding, forging and different crafts. The winners for these forms of competition were promised supplies, food and things useful to the average working man. A new working horse is sometimes more valuable than any fancy blade or jewels, unless you spent those blades and jewels to buy the damn horse. It also provided the chance for someone to prove themselves and availed themselves to better opportunities. You never knew where you would find the next gifted cook or smith. Even if some of the youths didn't win their competitions, they might show something to the people watching that might attract their interests. Finding a smart young lad could promise a new potential Maester. Even if that didn't come to pass, smart youths had time to create new ideas. Those new ideas might prove worth a castle.

Jon was also looking forward to seeing Naruto competing. The man had increased his own training even more and Jon felt like he would never catch up to him. He'd seen Naruto fighting multiple opponents at the same time without breaking a sweat. Naruto had also started teaching Jon about 'intent'. He still felt a shiver when he remembered the time Naruto had demonstrated 'killing intent'. Looking at Naruto when he showed what he called 'killing intent' was terrifying. It felt heavy and oppressive. Your muscles tightened and you sort of felt like your stomach was going to come out through your mouth. If you wanted to fight you needed to force yourself to move. Not so with running away, that came easier than breathing. Naruto explained that most animals had the innate ability to sense the intent of other beings, whether it be positive or negative. That intent could give you insight to a person or animal. Mostly people only sensed 'bloodlust' or 'killing intent' and even then, it was mostly when they were the target. Soldiers and warriors that had been to battles could sense intent easier and so were more wary.

The Uzumaki clan taught their children about intent early, because truly hiding intent was harder than sensing it. Jon got the basics down rather fast. Sensing the intent was to calm yourself and quiet your mind. It also opened you to the feelings of others. It also made it easier to understand others. Rather easy to sympathize with others when you could feel their emotions when deep enough. The change in Jon since he began learning about 'intent' was fairly visible. The older woman carrying out her tasks despite her back pain, Jon could somewhat sense and tried to help them. Even though how Sansa may have acted, if she was sad, Jon would try to cheer her up. Jon also liked Lyanna more, because he always felt positive feelings towards himself, like a warm bath. He tried to shut out the feelings from others around Catelyn. The woman didn't seem to have positive feelings on many things.

Lust was also somewhat strange to experience from others. He also got the feeling that he really was somewhat pretty in women's eyes considering what he felt from some of the maids. Asking about it from Naruto had led to a rather long and embarrassing lesson about women and the responsibilities from taking any woman to bed. The book about nerve-points in the human body and their effects on a person was useful. Naruto going into an in-depth lesson about making use of those nerve-points during sex was a bit too much in Jon's opinion and so was the book from the east about different positions with drawings and step-by-step instructions. When Jon asked why Naruto had this, the man shrugged and told Jon that his Clan didn't turn their noses up for most vocations and left it at that. Jon didn't get an answer when asking who translated all the books on the subject in question when some of the manuals written on other, more important, subjects were still in their original language.

Jon also had the pleasure of getting to know the Mormont's and no matter the ribbing he got from Naruto he would not admit to his crush on Dacey, the oldest of the Mormont sisters. The crush actually began when Theon tried to tell Dacey about a woman's role. The punch was beautiful. Wrist tight and straight. Straight in to Theon's eye. It only got better when Robb tried to defend his 'friend'. The slap wasn't as powerful, but still swift and hurt. Robb almost cried. So did Jon and Arya, but from laughing. Arya even asked if Jon would marry Dacey, since she wanted her as a sister.

It didn't help that Dacey told Jon on the training yard, that if he didn't want to stay at Winterfell when he was a bit older, he could always come guard her on Bear Island, they'd see what would happen after that. She'd giggled at him when she'd said it and Naruto almost choked laughing too hard from listening in. It didn't help when Dacey's two younger sister's Alysane and Lyra joining in, but saying that Jon would much prefer to guard them than their "ancient" sister. That was the first time Jon had seen a woman swinging a mace at another woman.

The girls' mother joined in, stopping things from going further, and claimed that if Jon was to be anyone's guard, he'd be hers. That set of Naruto's laughter again while Lyanna, for some reason, chucked her half-eaten apple at Maege's head. The following shot of "maybe I'll take Naruto with me when I leave here, maybe he'd like to serve a warrior" from Maege had both Ladies of ancient houses in the training yard with blunted blades. From then on Jon would never forget that Lyanna had trained with Naruto since the dirt thrown in Maege's face and the things that could generously referred to as 'cheap shots' were used with aplomb. In the end you could tell Lyanna and Maege knew each other and the fight dissolved into what looked like a slap-fight between two little girls, rather than two warrior women, both giving insults at each other. After releasing some stress, they calmed and then dragged Maege's girls to the steam room.

The next morning Naruto came in to the hall to break his fast, sat across from Jon and Dacey, but he looked like he hadn't slept a wink. Jon being concerned for his teacher asked if he was fine. Naruto only patted him on the head and mumbled something about Jon being a good boy and that he was happy to sacrifice for him. Jon was even more confused. Maege and Lyanna came in, like they hadn't fought yesterday, both looking refreshed and bright-eyed. They sat on either side of Naruto and after wishing a good morning to Jon asked if he was ready for today's training and what he had planned focusing on today. Their conversation was momentarily interrupted as Naruto kicked the table with his knee suddenly, drawing attention to himself. He mumbled a sorry and just lamely said he was a bit tired. Lyanna narrowed her eyes and glared at Mage, who was doing her best to look innocent. Jon was hoping he wasn't this weird when he was done growing. Dacey was looking at the three adults wide-eyed and made a small "Oooh, huh" like she just figured something out. Maege only smirked at her oldest.

From then on Dacey seemed to be giving Naruto measuring glances. Like maybe she was thinking of challenging him to a fight. Naruto didn't really fight that day, he just stayed near Lyanna and shouted advice to Jon. Jon was still happy to train with the Mormont girls. Each was strong and each could smash through the defense of anyone their age. He was also officially done with the word "Dodge!" that came from Naruto anytime one of the Mormont sisters swung at him. Now he didn't try to stop any hit's he could either dodge or deflect.

The rumors of the heir of Winterfell siding with the hostage over one of his future bannermen didn't exactly endear him to the people he needed to impress in order to not get deposed from his future rule. It also didn't help that Dacey had already established herself as someone similar to her mother, so questions about Robb's behavior were rearing their heads. It also put into question whether or not Robb was 'of the North'. His behavior wasn't exactly inline with someone who would be the Quiet Wolf's son. Neither were his looks. Ned was quite aware of this and for the first time had dragged Robb in to his solar by the back of the boy's neck, then slammed the door closed. When Robb emerged, he looked like he just faced the White Walkers themselves. Robb threw himself into training as well. The tournament was his best chance to actually prove himself, possibly his last chance. He even wanted to spar with Jon more. Robb lost constantly, but still continued trying.

Theon boasted that he'd win the archery competition with ease. He did not train like Jon and Robb. He just sometimes trained half-heartedly, preferring whore's and wine to training.

Even Sansa seemed to get into the tournament after Jon told her it wasn't only about swinging a sword. Sansa wished to participate in to the clothes making portion. She even visited Wintertown to see how the people making such things as a living made their clothes.

The tournament was shaping to be interesting. Jon was looking forward to fighting the Mormont girls again, and getting to fight others of his age. Not long now.

To be continued…?

Next update, next weekend. Reviews always appreciated!