The Shopkeeper of Konoha

191. South of the North



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"Really? Then what is the point of going there?" Kisuke's excitement died down instantly when he heard Aoto say that the new realm might not be new. But Aoto didn't care about the words of Kisuke and just opened a portal after asking the system.

The portal showed a large forest and a small road tore through the middle like a hot knife on butter. The road was dilapidated and the cobblestones seemed like they didn't exist as it was covered over years of mud, fallen leaves and an air of serenity which the world of shinobi lacked.

"Can't you just tell us what kind of world it is?" Arya couldn't help but ask.

"What is the fun in that?" Aoto said with a smirk. "So minna.. Let's go." Aoto said. Loki pretty animated of going to a new realm. Sitting on the throne had made his life very boring and thus getting to know new worlds has been new to him. 

Without much thought he was the first one to go through the portal, nobody needed a run down of how Aoto's powers worked so Loki to didn't ask and honestly, going to different dimensions he could do it too, but the dimensions Aoto opened were new so he couldn't wait to explore it. 

Seeing Loki bravely walk through, others did the same. Except for Unohana, who wasn't interested at all, everyone stepped in. 

Tessai, Kisuke, Aoto, Yorichi, John, Arya, Shikuro, Edward, Winry and Corazon. 

The moment they stepped in they felt a rush of cold weather hit their bodies and their bodies couldn't help but shiver a bit. Seeing the cold wind hitting their cheeks, everyone around conjured cloth out of magic to cover their bodies. This was basic magic, so it didn't really need any huge amount of magic. 

"The air seems a bit old. Like something of the old ages." Tessai said while twirling his moustache and looking around. Shikuro and John immediately went to work as they could tell that Aoto was not spilling the beans. 

They made some insects and butterflies to fly around. These small creatures would scout the area and give them their general location and understand what realm they were in. While the creatures moved around, they walked through the forests. 

"I would advice you all to hide your faces, because all of you are not very welcome here." Aoto reminded. 

"So we should use ancient attire?" Jon asked. Aoto nodded and John went back to his long forgotten clothes which he used when he was in Westeros but also made sure to cover the face. The others did the same. Arya and John gave everyone points of how to use ancient attires. Of course all of them felt uncomfortable. 

"We can do great clothing business here." Winry said with a laugh as she found the new clothes a bit uncomfortable.

"That is true." Aoto added. 

They were walking in no particular direction and just strolled around and from far they could see a huge clearing ahead but before they could reach the clearing, some of the small creatures came flying back and relayed what they had found when they were around. 

Shikuro didn't have any change in his facial expression but John stiffened. Without any thinking he looked ahead and broke into a run. 

"John... John.. Where the fuck are you running?" Arya shouted but John didn't hear her words at all. Seeing her brother run like a mad man, made her run too. And seeing Arya run like that, Winry did too. 

Following here were the others. Aoto had a smirk on his lips, it was then Kisuke said. 

"It's their home world, isn't it?" Kisuke asked. Aoto nodded. 

"That will be quite interesting." Tessai said. And then both of them walked towards where they ran. They soon came to a huge clearing, which consisted of undulated meadows. And beyond the very lush meadows, one could see a huge castle which was located on the side of a river and outside the castle was a bunch of small quite rundown. 

But Arya who just followed John to this meadow looked at the castle with her eyes open wide and the next thing she did was turning around and look at Aoto. 

"That is Castle Cerwyn, isn't it?" Arya asked taking a deep breath. Aoto nodded his head in response and this made Arya almost jump in joy but the next words of Aoto almost made her fall over her feet. 

"We might be in the past, but not sure how long before." 

"What?" Arya asked. 

"Yeah what I mean to say is there might be two of you." Aoto said. This made Arya's jaws drop as she couldn't believe what Aoto just said. Loki, who was standing by, asked.

"How much time difference are we talking about?" 

"I have no idea." Aoto said. 

"Yes, we have idea." John said as he opened a portal after running back and seeing Castle Cerwyn with his own eyes. Castle Cerwyn was a small castle of House Cerwyn, which was a vassal of House Stark of the North. Technically speaking it was a half a day ride from here to Winterfell but who would walk when someone had magic. 

John had just opened a portal to Winterfell. Following that Aoto and others walked right in through the portal. And the cold weather that was a bit chilling to Aoto and others, just became a bit more. 

Everyone around wrapped around their clothes and Edward even wrapped a small sweater for Yorichi to make her feel warm, which the black cat appreciated. They had appeared in one of the open meadows that was far from Winterfell but from their position they could see the huge walls of the Winterfell. 

The Winterfell from their position looked fine while John and Arya almost had tears in their eyes. They could see that the Winterfell here wasn't the one after the Night King attacked. So it was long before the raid. 

Now the question was how long they had traveled back?

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