A/N: Here again, and back with another installment!
I have taken a leave of absence to gather some hippie wisdom. And here it is:
If you tell me that you don't want something, you will get MORE OF IT!
Looking up at the ever-cloudy sky above Winterfell, a Naruto Clone had to stifle a sigh of annoyance, before turning around and sounding a massive war cry.
The original Naruto had left a dozen Shadow Clones and one Blood Clone back in the castle to look out for the rest of the Starks who were staying, particularly Bran, who was still recovering.
The Blood Clone, in the mean time, was driving the others up the wall with his endless taunting. He was basically an amped-up version of a regular Clone. Since he drew power directly from the original, he was able to retain form permanently as well as eat, sleep, drink, bleed, and, as he like to keep reminding them, have sex.
This combination of bitterness and annoyance led to some subtle feelings of growing resentment that was currently bubbling up in the rest of the Shadow clones.
In other words, he was driving them nuts.
"RAAAH!"
Naruto caught the Shadow Clone by the face and slammed it into the ground, causing it to pop, even as a few more encircled him warily. At the same time, he couldn't help but sigh as he rubbed the back of his head. Even for his normal Clones, this was just ridiculous. So, he may have boasted a little, was that really reason to try to beat the shit out of him?
He grinned. There was a surefire way out of this.
"Gentlemen," he said. "Can we please just-GAH!"
"Shut up, ya fuck!" the clone who'd just taken a cheap shot shouted, before it tried to punch again.
Catching the blow with a hand, he pulled the clone towards himself and gave it a nasty head-butt. Two more came at him from either side. He punched one in the gut and kicked the other in the face, then winced as he got the memories of both at the same time.
"Enough of this," he said tiredly, as he dispelled the remaining few clones, before rubbing his stomach and face with a groan. One of the problems with Shadow clones was they transferred the sensation that caused them to dispel, generally pain.
Grunting in annoyance, he walked past a couple of people who barely gave him a glance, far too used to his antics, and started up the stairs towards Bran's room.
Pushing the door open, he was greeted with the sight of Catelyn sitting near Bran's bed. Her eyes were red and puffy from lack of sleep and sobbing over her son, though she was trying to concentrate on making a prayer wheel for the Seven. Another one of his Clones was standing near the bed, his hands glowing green. Looking up from the boy, he glared at Naruto, who held up a hand. His eye flickered over to Catelyn, and the Clone nodded hesitantly, getting the message. Neutral territory.
Naruto walked quietly over and put a hand on her shoulder. "You alright?"
She didn't respond, so he took a closer look at Bran. A few fading bruises still remained on his legs, but all in all they were healing up nicely. He still hadn't woken up, but his breathing was slow, steady and strong.
He sighed. Bran may have been okay for now, but it was Cat that was worrying him more. She hadn't moved in days, always staying by her son's side. And normally he wouldn't have a problem with that, had she actually touched her food and slept for more than three straight hours. She wouldn't help anyone, least of all herself, if she kept this up.
"Cat, you should really consider moving around," he said gently. "Bran's getting better, but killing yourself with worry isn't the answer to... much of anything, really."
"I'll leave when Bran is awake," she said shortly, not even looking at him.
"Save me from the stubbornness of redheads," he muttered as he ran a hand through his hair. "Whatever. If you feel like having some food or something, let one of my clones know." And he disappeared in a flash.
Appearing a few hundred feet away, he turned towards the giant weirwood tree on the edge of a black pool of water.
He always came to the center of the Godswood to relax, away from most everything else. Usually, Ned would sit near the white tree to clear his own head, but he had been heading South along the Kingsroad for the past few weeks. Traveling nearly a hundreds of miles away from home was certain to make Ned's wife upset, never mind the fact that he'd done so after his son had fallen from a tall tower and nearly been crippled. All of that was certain to piss off anyone, let alone Catelyn Stark.
Shaking his head, Naruto stepped forward even as he took off his boots, cloak and shirt, standing on the water's surface as he walked into the center of the pool. Sitting down, he crossed his legs, pressed his fists together and closed his eyes as he opened himself up to the nature energy around him.
This was his favorite place in the castle, a greenhouse built by Brandon the Builder way back when in the so-called Age of Heroes of Westeros. It was a nice place to rest and relax.
"Naruto!"
Sansa and Jon walked into the glass garden, talking animatedly about the finer points of their different sword styles.
He smiled. Being able to teleport from one place to another certainly had its benefits.
They both stopped speaking when they noticed Naruto in the middle of the pool, sitting on the water.
"Hey."
"What are you doing?" Sansa asked, fighting down the blush that was struggling to appear
He gave a large grin. "Gathering up natural energy. Just a few more seconds and... there we go."
The skin around Naruto's eyes turned to dark orange, his pupils having turned into bars as his irises turned golden orange.
Walking over to the edge of the pool, he blinked in surprise as Sansa grabbed his face and turned it in several directions, peering at him from different angles.
"Well, this is interesting. How did you change the shape of your pupils? How are your irises so gold now? And how did you suddenly get makeup?"
He was smiling right up until the last one. Sighing, he suddenly felt a bit more sympathy for Kankuro. "It's something I do when I gather a bunch of natural energy into myself and balance it perfectly with my chakra. My eyes get like this and I become a lot stronger. It's called Sage Mode. And you can let go of my face now."
As she did so, Naruto turned around, walked to the middle of the pool and sat down, heedless of the curious looks both children were giving him. Jon sighed, and, seeing no point to staring any longer, turned around and started walking back to the courtyard.
Sansa, however, stayed. "Naruto? Can I ask you something?"
His one eye cracked open. "Hm?"
About to speak, the young girl dithered for a second, playing with her hair as she tried to figure out how to say her question.
"Sansa, I hope you enough about me by now to realize that I won't be offended by whatever you want to ask."
She gave a small smile, steeled herself, and spoke. "Why did you come to Winterfell?"
He raised an eyebrow.
Stammering for a moment, Sansa tried to gather her thoughts. "W-well, I mean, I've heard about what you did during the War and then the Rebellion," she said, unsure. "Even now, the common people still sing your praises in the taverns."
"Oh really? Been to many taverns lately?" he asked with a smile. Blushing, she threw a stone at his head which he neatly dodged.
"You know what I mean!" she huffed. "What I'm trying to say is, you had a choice! You could have gone to King's Landing, Casterly Rock, the Reach, the Vale, or anywhere else. So why here?"
"Ha!" he laughed. "If I went through all the details and nuances of why I decided to come here, we'd still be talking by the time next Winter rolls around."
"Then just summarize it!" she growled, then subsided a little. "...I want to know."
For a few seconds he looked into her eyes. Then his smile gave way to a pensive look as he turned around to stare at the Weirwood tree.
"...Four reasons. Reason one was your dad," Naruto said, putting up one finger while staring off into space. "Ned is a disturbingly honest ruler, and given what I've seen here, that's saying something. At the time, I trusted him a lot more than any of the other lords around, so I decided to ask if I could hang out here."
He held up a second finger. "Reason two, is a matter of economics."
She blinked a few times. "What do you mean?"
Naruto dithered for a second, then pulled a scroll from his pocket. Biting his thumb and swiping blood down the seal released a puff of smoke and several small, lumpy... things were suddenly in his hand
"For example, do you know what these are?"
She took one from his palm and looked it over. "Is it a plant?"
"Hell of a plant," he grinned. "This is a potato."
She waited for a few seconds, then sighed. "In your wildest dreams, could you have possibly imagined that I would have any idea what you're talking about?"
He pouted. "Well, just go ahead and spoil my fun, why don't you. These potatoes..." he enunciated, as she gave a discreet roll of the eyes, "...are plants that are far better suited to growing in cold environments than wheat, barley, oats or rye. I've had teams of Shadow Clones out supervising a dozen farms for the past few years, with a yield at least three times that of the average wheat farm. That's helped Ned a lot 'cause he didn't need to break his back over finances and trade for extra wheat reserves from the Tyrells," he said, walking over to her and donning his shirt, as it seemed to be distracting Sansa.
"Third was so that I could implement more of my other ideas on a large scale. Something I noticed is that the society you're living is a lot less... advanced than mine. We had dozens of technologies no one here has imagined, let alone actually created. Things like travel, smithing, mining, farming, education and warfare were way far ahead of anything I've seen here."
He frowned for a few seconds as Sansa listened raptly.
Her brow furrowed for a few seconds as she was reminded of something. "Is that what Robb and father kept talking about? I remember them complaining about... the ground you dug up?"
Naruto smiled and stood up, brushing dust from his pants. "Now, I want you to think carefully on this. Can you imagine me, a person from a strange world with knowledge and technology far more advanced than yours, actually being content with using chamber pots?"
He ruffled her hair and walked away, leaving Sansa pouting. She sat for a few minutes, thinking about everything she'd learned, when she suddenly remembered that he'd only mentioned three reasons.
After long and arduous thought, I have come to the conclusion that I am really quite terrible at updating things.
I'm sorry for taking so long. Honestly.
I hope you enjoyed this latest installment.