The Shopkeeper of Konoha

Winterfell,

The next day.

In order to keep up the charade that they were just regular merchants from a faraway land, John, Arya, and Aoto did come down to the tavern the previous night and had some fun with the locals. John especially had some fun with them as he felt he was back in the old times. This tavern was often visited by his brother and Theon, but today wasn't one of those days, so even though he was a bit disappointed not to see his brother again after so many years, he was still happy to see the old world again and even live in it.

Arya wasn't that interested, but she did enjoy the booze provided. She had always wanted to come here and have some fun, while being jealous of her brothers. But now that she was here, she didn't know what she would feel.

Nostalgic? Maybe.

Sadness? Definitely.

The weird emotions made her drink a bit more and got drunk by the end. John was more in charge and thus, at the end, seeing his sister getting all drunk, John brought her back to the room and took her back to the library.

The next day she was all hungover, but Aoto gave her medicine to cope with her headache. On this day, Aoto and the duo stayed at the tavern as they might be called anytime. John had already gone once in the morning to make sure that there was a meeting to be held later with Lord Stark.

It was around 11 am when the guard who had ushered them inside Winterfell came and said that Lord Stark had allowed them to meet. This made John and Arya jump in joy. All this time, they could have controlled some people with magic and could have forced themselves to meet their father, but they thought otherwise as doing so might have the opposite effect.

They wanted to save their father, not make him some kind of puppet.

"Excited to meet him?" Aoto asked in a whispering volume. John subconsciously nodded as he really was excited. They followed the guard around. John and Arya felt like they were in some dream where they were walking through the same walls and corridors that they were once brought up in.

After some walking up and down the steps and crossing some huge doors, they were finally at the huge hall where Lord Stark sat in the big chair with a long table in front. Beside him was the old and trustworthy Maester Luwin. While on the other chair by the side was the young Rickon Stark.

John, while entering through the door, seeing his brother, almost choked up, but Arya held him and made sure that his brother was fine. Arya knew what had gone down with her brother, so she too could feel the pain John was feeling at the moment.

Ned Stark was sitting on the chair while talking with the Maestar and going through all the arrangements they needed to do, while Rickon was writing some rubbish on a piece of rough paper. Paper would be a too high of a word, it was mostly a piece of leather that could be written on. Paper was still very expensive so high up in the North.

Ned after seeing John, Arya and Aoto could easily tell that they weren't from around here as he had never seen those faces before. John was holding a piece of something that looked like a bag he was carrying on his shoulder while the others were hands free. Before being let inside their bodies were already being checked for weapons and there was none.

They were about to meet the Warden of the North and these three were unknown so of course they needed to be checked. After the proper checks, they were let in and soon they stood in front of Lord Stark.

"Welcome to Winterfell. I am Ned Stark, Warden of the North. The guards told me that you came from the south. You want to do business here? Where exactly is your place?" Ned didn't seem to have too much time, so he asked the questions directly.

"Yes, My Lord. We come from Salt Shore of Vaith," John replied.

"Vaith? That's one a shithole," Maester Luwin murmured, but Aoto and others heard it and they didn't mind at all.

"So far south? And you came here to talk business with us? Isn't that too much waste of money?" Ned was a little perplexed and asked.

"We have heard a lot about the honesty and loyalty of the Warden of the North. In business, what we want is honesty, as we feel that only this trait will help us establish a good business anywhere. We already have a good business on Vaith, and we needed to expand. What better place to expand than Winterfell?" Arya came forward and said. She knew what to speak at this moment and thus gave a valid explanation.

Ned's face didn't change at all hearing the subtle flattery as he still felt something was off, but he didn't ask. Rather, he looked at the bag of John. John, getting the cue, presented the bag and opened the chain. The bag was a modern bag, so Ned was a bit shocked when he saw the chains being opened. He had never seen a mechanism like this for opening a bag, but he did get fascinated.

John then opened the bag and presented the things that he had come here with. A mechanical handwatch. John had thought a lot, and he remembered how fascinated he was when he came across a handwatch for the first time and the notion of time being able to be measured. He knew that this thing would sell quite well in this place, and thus he brought out his item and presented it to Ned Stark.

"What is this?" Ned was confused as he had never seen such a thing in his life before, so John went on to explain what this was. The more he listened, the more fascinated he became with this mechanical device.