Storm of the North

Chapter 9

Q&A

billymom2: I don't… I mean… I have no idea how to respond to this. You win, I've no idea how to respond. I could try sarcasm, but I'm not a 100% percent if you're trying to do bit where you're reprimanding like a puppy or if you're actually calling me a bad writer. I don't know which way to go, I'm stuck.

Winterfell, 297, soon to be 298 AC

Naruto POV

*Thunk* the arrow hit the barrel next to the target. Bran stomped in frustration almost making Naruto chuckle. Jon clapped a hand on Bran's shoulder and leaning in to say something in a lowered voice. Bran momentarily turned to glance at his father and mother observing the boy's training. Next to Jon stood Robb, lightly smirking at Bran's first attempts at the bow. On Bran's other side stood Ygritte, smiling fondly at Bran and Jon.

Bran drew again, loosed and missed the target. Ygritte tried to fix his drawing of the arrow but the boy had yet to develop the muscles needed. Bran tried again, struggling to draw the bow. This time, the arrow didn't go off to the sides but over the target. Jon along with Robb gave out a small laugh drawing a fit of giggles from little Rickon who sat there watching them practice.

"And which one of you was a marksman at 10?" Ned asked seeing the boys laughing at Bran's attempts. Naruto casually turned his head and stared at Ned while raising his hand. Ned noticed and simply said "You don't count, now do you."

Naruto shrugged and lowered his hand and resumed his observing. Ned urged his son to keep going. After brief hesitation Bran drew another arrow and Jon leaned in to say something to the boy, followed by Ygritte leaning in and saying something that drew a small giggle form the boy if the shaking of his shoulders was any indication. Bran drew the bow again and took aim.

*Thunk* an arrow hit the center of the target.

Bran brought his arrow forward, easing the strain on his bow and turned to see Arya standing behind them with a bow of her own. Jon, Robb and Ygritte turned to look at the girl, the boys having a surprised look and Ygritte smiling from ear to ear. Arya gave a small curtsy that set of Bran as the boy tossed his bow aside and dashed after his sister, Arya dopped her bow and ran away while giggling. The boys laughed and yelled encouragement for Bran to run faster.

"You could have done better, keep practicing little Arya!" Ygritte hollered after the two. The girl then picked up the bow Bran dropped, took one of the arrows for training and put it in the center of the target. Jon came over, leaning in the girl's ear and whispering something as the girl drew another arrow. The girl gave him a light bump with her hip and put another arrow in the targets center, practically in the same hole as her last arrow. Jon grinned while staring at Ygritte, not even caring about where the arrows were going.

The talk with Jon had gone well. In relative term at least. Jon raged, cried, laughed and raged some more. Tried to take a swing at Ned. Took a swing at Naruto who let the first hit connect, then told the boy he'd return the rest. That didn't deter Jon any though. It turned into a brief punchout. Then he cried some more, this time hugging his mother. The end result was Jon with peace of mind. He'd visibly relaxed since. He didn't care about Cat. Couldn't give at toss either way. He was more open about his relations with Ygritte. The boy looked like a weight had lifted off him, especially when he asked if he'd have to rule someday and the answer Naruto and Lyanna had insisted on was "You do what you feel is right, nothing more or less."

For now, Jon seemed to feel the right thing was spending time with Ygritte and his "siblings". That hadn't changed, he still thought of the other Stark children as his siblings. He was also taking turns with Naruto on acting as Lyanna's bodyguard under the pretense of "he needs to learn how to act as support for his brother for when he finally rules". Really, the mother and son just wanted to spend time together especially since the good news. Jon was going to get a new sibling and no one was under any misconception on who the father was. Catelyn seemed to despise the thought of another child born out of wedlock staying at Winterfell. Naruto had already recognized the child as a member of Clan Uzumaki. Naruto could argue that Jon seemed to actually put more effort into protecting Lyanna than even Naruto did. Seemed to be training harder as well.

Rickon was running back and forth between the targets, where Robb was taking out the arrows, handing them to their little helper and Jon, who put the arrows away after inspecting their condition. Jon froze for a moment, and turned to look up at the balcony overlooking the training yard, up there stood Catelyn, glaring down at Jon. Jon only gave a small smile and waved at her, then turned away and continued with his task. Catelyn's eyes widened minutely and her nostrils flared. She turned in a huff and left. Ygritte who had followed the action gave a sharp bark of laughter.

Ned calmly walked into the yard and indicated for Naruto, Jon and Robb to come closer. They did and were informed that the Night's Watch had a runaway who was captured. The man had broken his oaths and was sentenced to death and they would be leaving soon to carry out the sentence. Naruto nodded turning to walk back to Lyanna's side. He informed her of what was going on. Lyanna was ambivalent on the news, feeling sad that someone had to die, yet also resolute that the man had broken his oaths and the Old Gods demanded their price. The man had taken his oaths in front of a weirwood. In the North, breaching such a vow was not a small issue. It was said you could never tell a lie in front of them and breaching a vow made in front of one was tantamount to abandoning any semblance respect you had for the Old Gods, the ancient customs of the North and any respect people had for you.

Naruto let out a sigh. Bran would be coming with them. Jon would have to keep a strict eye on the boy. And Naruto had the dubious honor of interrogating the man being sentenced. While normally good times, Naruto just wasn't feeling it today.

Later that day, a hill outside Winterfell

As they arrived Naruto checked his bag of tools. He along with Ned got down from their horses and made their way over to the deserter sitting outside the circle meant for executions. The man looked lost in his head as the Warden of North approached alongside a man famous for the amount of blood he'd shed. The younger man kept muttering to himself. When they finally came up to him, the young man didn't react. Ned glanced to Naruto at the behavior. Naruto nodded and approached the deserter. Naruto took off the bag he as carrying and set it gently on the ground. He got on his knee and tried to make eye contact with the young man who seemed to staring in to nothing, still muttering.

"Hello. My name is Naruto, who are you?" Naruto tried to engage the youth.

He didn't react, just kept muttering. Naruto narrowed his eyes and reached into his bag, drawing out a vial. Naruto raised it towards the sky to confirm the color and seemingly satisfied gave it a small shake, while making sure the stopper stayed on. he then undid the small latch keeping it secure and opened the bottle and brought it closer to the deserter's face, right under his nose. The young man nearly retched from the action. Naruto, satisfied, shut the bottle and put it back into his bag. He then spoke to the deserter again.

"Now that you're with us again, my name is Naruto. Hello. Who are you?" Naruto spoke in a steady, calm voice.

"Will, ser" the young man muttered.

"Well then, Will, can you tell us why you ran? This will be the last time we can record such a thing. Usually it's just marked own as 'oathbreaking and cowardice'."

"The Wall, the other side, I-" the deserter seemed to clam up.

"The other side? Can you please elaborate?" Naruto asked patiently.

"There's… they're there. They're actually there. No one believes me, but they're actually there…" Will trailed off.

"Will, we already know there are people on the other side of the Wall. And we also know they can be quite brutal. You knew that when you were brought there." Naruto spoke with disappointment.

"No! Not that! That's not why I ran!" Will snapped.

"Then why?"

Will whispered something.

"Repeat that Will." Naruto spoke patiently

Will swallowed and glanced North in fright then this time a it louder spoke "White Walkers, they're there."

Naruto stared at the frightened young man's eyes for a time, then cleared his throat "Will, are you telling us that you ran from White Walkers?"

"Yes, I ran to warn my family, to take them away" Then young man pleaded, while Naruto hadn't blinked the whole time.

"Do you swear?" Naruto leaned in closer.

"I do so swear. On the Old Gods and the New!" Will exclaimed.

Naruto seemed to be mulling over the deserter's answer. Naruto licked his suddenly dry lips and spoke "Will, I believe you when you say you ran from White Walkers to warn your family. At least you believe what you saw were White Walkers. There is no lie in your eyes or voice. But Will, if what you saw was truly any threat to the Wall or the Seven Kingdoms, you should have told the Night's Watch and insisted on an investigation. Instead, you abandoned your post as the Watcher on the Wall and ran. The sentence shall stay the same, but rest assured, we will find out what you saw on the other side of the Wall."

Will shakily nodded as Naruto grabbed his bag and rose to his feet. Ned, who had been listening this whole time, took ahold of Naruto's arm as he tried to walk past and hissed into the man's ear "Naruto, what are you doing?"

Naruto simply turned to Ned and spoke in a quiet voice "Not here. You have a duty to perform." rest of the people escorting Ned there had gotten off their horses at this point. Theon was carrying the Stark family's Valyrian sword Ice and stood waiting. Jon stood next to Bran, behind Robb.

Ned blew out air through his nose and walked over to the executioner's block. The guards hauled the prisoner to his feet and escorted him to stand in front of Ned.

Will glanced around hesitantly, then turned his eyes to Ned and spoke in breaking voice as Ned gazed at the scared young man "I know I broke my oath. And I know I'm a deserter. I should have gone back to the Wall and warned, but-" the young man lightly shook his head gathering his thoughts "I saw what I saw. I saw the White Walkers. People need to know."

Will swallowed nervously and continued "If you get word to my family… tell them I'm no coward. Tell them I'm sorry."

Ned very surreptitiously nodded his head. Then more firmly nodded to the side and Theon borught Ice forward. The guards pushed the deserter on his knees and his head on to the block. Will said a prayer in a small voice as Ned drew the mighty blade and set it down, tip against the ground in a motion of prayer. Ned bowed his head, closing his eyes and spoke "In the name of Robert of the House Baratheon, the first of his name, king of the Andals and the first men, lord of the Seven Kingdoms and protector of the realm, I, Eddard of the House Stark, lord of Winterfell and the Warden of the North, sentence you to die."

Ned gave a moment of silence, then turned and in a smooth motion, hefted the blade into a downward swing. The blade didn't even seem to make contact with the neck as it cut clean through it. Will didn't have time to feel any pain from his execution. Valyrian steel, it was to be admired.

Naruto turned to walk to his horse and noticed Bran was still looking at the headless corpse. He walked past the boy and ruffled his head, snapping him out of his thoughts. He got his horse ready and walked it next to Jon's. For a while they waited in silence as the others got ready and Ned was talking to Bran.

"Was he telling the truth?" Jon broke the silence.

"He believed everything he said. No knowing if he was mad or speaking the truth. Either way, someone needs to go to the Wall to check-in on things. He might have seen wildlings preparing for an invasion and playing tricks or he could have seen a new player, either way, we need to know what's happening" Naruto spoke calmly. Jon simply nodded. Soon they were riding back towards Winterfell.

Their passage was stopped by a deer corpse that was torn apart which led to them finding a dead direwolf mother, pierced by the dead deer's antler and it's now orphaned pups. Six pups they found. One for each child of the Stark family. Jon's wolf was pure white with red eyes. Scrawny little thing it was, just like Jon was when younger. It was the smallest of the litter. It also hadn't made a sound since Jon had picked it up and shown it to Naruto. Fascinating.

After they made it back to Winterfell and the pups were divided amongst the remaining children, Naruto and Lyanna looked on as Jon and Ygritte played the newly named Ghost the direwolf pup. The little pup seemed to enjoy tugging Jon's hand back and forth and trying to clamp on to Ygritte's long hair. Later in the evening one of Naruto's contact bumped in to him as they were walking to their rooms. Naruto waited until they were behind closed doors to reach in to his pocket to pull out a message, while sitting down.

'Falcon is dead. Not saved by the Gray Rat, intentional or not, unknown. Spider has contacted East. The Mocking-Bird grows bold. Trout has fled and taken the young bird. The young lions seem pleased. Whispers say the Fat Stag travels North.'

Naruto simply showed the message to Lyanna and turned to stare in to the fire in the corner of the room. Lyanna digested the contents of the message then spoke "We're going to get pulled in, aren't we?"

"Yes" Naruto simply whispered. He had preparations to do. They had at most two months till that fat fucker was here to pull them all into one his harebrained ideas.

Lyanna came from behind him and started massaging his shoulders as he sat in his chair and spoke quietly "Don't worry, we'll think of something."

"We?" Naruto questioned, raising his eyebrows.

Lyanna chuckled "Aye, we."

To be continued…

Next update, next weekend. Reviews always appreciated!