Storm of the North

Chapter 8

Q&A

R: Hmm… good points…. I shall counter with Ser Gregor Clegane, who swings a greatsword one handed as influenced by the owner of the ASOIAF. Also, this is a fantasy setting. If the greatest problem for you in a world in which dragons, wizards and magic exists, is the fact my MC wields a greatsword onehanded and a shorter blade alongside it, then your life is truly bleak and sad. You have my pity. I don't know much about swordsmanship, true. I've never trained in it. Give me an unarmed fight scene and I'll make sh*t happen, but to those who read the story and recognized where I borrowed Naruto's fighting style against Fugaku, kudos to you.

Uncle Dork: Oh you~*blushes*

The start of the year has been hectic, sorry for this chapter getting delayed. My actual work has been a bitch and a half.

Witerfell, 297 AC

Naruto POV

If Jon didn't marry Ygritte, Naruto was quite sure he was going to adopt the girl into his family. The amusement factor on its own was worth it for not just him, but Lyanna and Arya as well. And Ned, even if the surly prig wouldn't admit it, was also amused by the girl's antics.

Surprisingly (or rather unsurprisingly) Lyanna had taken the young girl under her wing and they were very much birds of a feather. And since Lyanna got so well along with Ygritte, it meant that Arya also was made very familiar with the girl and had already requested that Jon marry her so that she would be made her sister. Naruto of course was forced to chime in that Ygritte might have to fight the Mormont girls for Jon's hand in marriage. Ygritte seemed to find the idea exhilarating. The shade of red they had managed to make Jon was comparable to hot coal or a ripe strawberry. And they said raising kids was hard, shows those amateurs what for.

Ygritte was gifted with the bow. Her style wasn't something strictly taught and she was almost instinctual in it's use. Made it perfect for her. She didn't like normal targets, but hunting was something she excelled at. She almost seemed like a better teacher for Jon concerning survival training, but she had the edge. Even if Jon and Ygritte didn't crow out about it, it was pretty easy to see that they were closer than normal and Jon seemed to be building a tolerance to the flirtations of the workers of the castle and Naruto had caught the two youths kissing. Not very passionately, Jon seemed to want to take it slow. Naruto felt proud of the young man.

The brake Naruto took with Jon was just what he needed. He'd gotten to rest and killing 'cunts' as Ygritte put it was just what he needed to de-stress. He and Lyanna had broken her bedframe. She had been sleeping in his room since. Naruto was building a new sturdier bedframe, since his own bedframe was making sounds it shouldn't be making. Lyanna's idea had been to just get rid of the bed and put down more furs. She claimed it would be their next challenge, breaking down the floor since they'd be using the floor as a bed. As amused as Naruto was by that idea, he wanted a bed. Especially since Lyanna wanted that baby. Didn't help that now that they'd broken a bed once, Lyanna wanted to do it a second time. He truly loved that woman.

As soon as he had gotten back, he'd gotten word of chatter from Kingslanding. Something was wrong. The things he'd heard didn't paint a clear picture, but certain 'pieces' were moving in a way indicating something was happening. It might be a power struggle in the Small Council or someone targeting the Small Council. One or two small birds had disappeared along with certain workers in the Red Keep that were frequent patrons of the brothels of the city. So far there hadn't been anything overt, but it seemed that either someone was taking out the Spider and Mocking-Bird to make room for themselves or the two were trying to make more room for themselves. You never knew in these things. It might even be that the Queen was trying to show off to her father like five years ago. According to his info, the Old Lion was not impressed at the time. The man seemed apathetic to his daughters attempts to prove her intelligence and power. Then again it seems she herself wasn't aware that punching down on others from a position of power wasn't that impressive to a man who's first true show of force only needed to be his last. Especially since she wasn't the one who clawed themselves into that position.

The Old Lion couldn't give two shits about who was on the Small Council. He had real power in varied forms and if he wanted, he could change the political landscape as necessary and it wasn't like Robert could truly stop him. The Falcon could, but the Old Lion didn't seem to be in any hurry to bring about changes as long as Jon held the position of the King's Hand. The Falcon sometimes seemed to act like a doting father to the King, who never truly punished his boy and the Old Lion was fine with that. If Naruto had to guess, the Old Lion felt he was superior to the Falcon. Which wasn't exactly weird. The man had been lauded as the greatest Hand of the King in the last century, put his vassal's back into line when they bared their teeth at him and he was the goodfather of the King. That and the Falcon was enabling someone similar to the Old Lions own father, someone who couldn't wield power correctly and preferred women and drink to discipline.

Naruto had only met Tywin, the Old Lion, once. As insane as it sounded, Naruto actually got along with the older man and if his mother had been offered a place in Casterly Rock, she'd have gotten along better with Twin than with Rickard in the start. Say what you will, the man was unscrupulous, was still in good shape in his older age, wanted to ensure the survival of his line and didn't hesitate to take out his enemies. Those were all things any Uzumaki could respect. In another reality Kushina might have at least tried to seduce Tywin for his seed, as he had brought out Jamie and was himself extremely gifted in the art of war.

He got along with the older man, but he didn't agree with some of his choices, for example keeping Ser Gregor Clegane and Armory Lorch from Dornish hands. Naruto didn't try to act holier than thou. It wasn't like the Uzumaki hadn't butchered children before, it being one of the dumber and more creative tactics the Uchiha had tried to employ before, the basic idea was that the Uzumaki would hesitate in killing them. They hadn't. Who knows, in another world Naruto might have killed Clegane and Elia Martell and her children would have been alive. Used as political pawns and hostages, but still alive. And if Tywin had fathered Naruto, he might have been a brooder. He might have kept his hair in some asinine fashion, like growing it longer and making it stick up over his head. Like a ducks tail feathers. God he could have looked like a dour duck butt with no humor. A fate worse than death dodged there. The "Duck Knight" Naruto Uzumaki. A shudder went through Naruto as he thought that.

Anyhow, Tywin had time to wait. His plans were already in place. He had secured the throne for his family, at least for now, so someone making waves in the upper echelons wasn't a good or bad thing. At least as long as it wasn't aimed at his 'pieces'. He shuddered to think of the chaos that would come if Tywin lost his best 'pieces' one way or another. The balance would instantly shift and there were multiple people who would try to take advantage and if a clear winner wouldn't emerge very quickly, some of those vying for power would come to blows, maybe even publicly which would send waves that would hit those on the outside and they would try to take advantage as well. The last time they had seen something like this, Robert became king. They North couldn't afford a fuck up similar to that so soon.

Then again, the 'pieces' Tywin had, were in important places, but they weren't the greatest to use. Naruto had met Cersei as well and the woman seemed like a spoiled brat and spoiled brats tried to 'think' for themselves, usually with disastrous consequences. As far as Naruto knew about Cersei's oldest, the boy was a male copy of the mother. The younger children he hadn't received information on. So as far as Naruto could see, Tywin had two very important 'pieces' already, but they were also 'pieces' he couldn't reliably control. The number of way's the whole system could go sideways after Robert's heart gave out from too much fat and wine was making Naruto's head hurt. He wondered how Tywin slept at night thinking about the situation. Probably the same way Naruto did, having confidence that the strength of their arms would carry them through. But where the strength Naruto was part of was from loyalty and respect, Tywin only had respect and fear. Fear was scarily easy to manipulate, by everyone.

Naruto had informants in many places, some of whom didn't even know who he was and that they were informants. Being a soldier during war time was a great time to build an information network, if you knew what you were doing. He was still pretty jealous of Varys. The amount of information that man had access to, was truly astounding. Oh, the things he could do with an information network that vast. He was the one who had to work on building the Uzumaki information network in Westeros by himself. Across the ocean the Uzumaki's before him had already created a network that had shifted and changed as they traveled, but even that paled in comparison what Varys had created in his single lifetime. He'd have to negotiate some sort of deal for Varys to hand over the reigns for his little birds before he passed. Not necessarily to Naruto, but someone else. As far as Naruto knew the man didn't have someone to inherit and it was a shame to pass on the opportunity. Maybe find some intelligent youth who could be trained by him or something similar. So many things to do, so little time to get them done. He'd have to keep his ear to the ground and be vigilant to what was going to happen in order to minimize the chaos. God's damn Ned with some loose bowels, the man didn't wish to play the game so Naruto was forced to do it for him. Rickard was so much easier. The former Lord Stark didn't like the game, but was willing to play, unlike his second son. Even Brandon, being a meathead he was, could and would play the game more than Ned.

Being in the North, the game didn't immediately extend this far from Kinglanding, but that only meant the aftereffects of actions there took time to radiate and meant they had time to react more than others. Which is why Ned should have been monitoring the happenings in Kingslanding himself, not trying to convince himself that the happenings there didn't concern them. Naruto had told him repeatedly that it was necessary for Ned to be aware of the situation in Kingslanding, but Ned didn't take is seriously. And his son didn't seem to be any better. Naruto worried for the North.

But, worrying for the North could wait for a little while. What he and Lyanna were discussing for tonight was if tomorrow they would tell Jon of his origins. It would hurt the boy to find out about the truth, but it was his right to know. The boy was old enough and smart enough to be an adult about this. Ned would predictably bitch and moan. But Naruto truly wanted to finally see Jon get to hug his mother with the knowledge she was his mother. After that, they would have to see about Jon visiting Arthur with him, if for nothing else, then to learn from the Sword of Morning. He could worry about Kingslanding the day after tomorrow.

To be continued…

Next update, next weekend. Reviews always appreciated!