Arc 3 - Frosteye

"These bandits you speak of." The old man interrupts the chattering of the young "Do you know who they are?"

Addam looks away and hesitates a bit.

"I've only heard rumors." Finally says the innkeeper.

"Rumors?" Ned asks.

All the men sitting at the table look at Addam waiting for answers, he loosens his tongue a little under the pressure of the group.

"Aye. I heard someone mention Frosteye's name."

Several faces turn pale, the infamous Benjen `Frosteye` Snow is well known in the North.

"That monster..."

"Killer."

"Thief"

Several men speak at once while others remain silent.

"Why doesn't Lady Dustin do anything?" Finally asks the young guard.

"You Can't Trust a Woman"

"Lady Dustin doesn't care about the small folk."

"Aye. As long as the bandits don't get close to her town, she won't do anything."

"I have heard the name Frosteye mentioned several times since I returned to the North. How infamous is this man?" Luffy interrupts them.

It is a young merchant who answers him. Rickon is twenty-two years old, mainly dealing in grain. He travels throughout the North making contracts with lords and small merchants selling grain from the Reach. Rickon was born in the North but when his father got a job at the Oldtown port his whole family left the frozen lands and moved to the warm plains of the south.

"Benjen Frosteye is a bastard of one lord or another, some say he is a bastard of the late Lord Bolton, others say he is the bastard son of Lord Karstark- No one knows who his father is but his mother is well known ."

"His mother is famous?"

"Aye old man. Famous in the worst way. Some call her Lady Redheart, but her name was Mera. She was a barmaid at Lady Siren, Whiteharbour's most famous inn." Rickon takes a sip from his glass.

"Lady Redheart was killed by her own son." The young man makes a face. Everyone is silent for a moment.

"Why do they call her Lady Redheart?" Luffy has a feeling but it's too morbid to be true.

`It can't be because-`

"Frosteye ripped her heart out of her chest." It is Addam who answers.

`Shit`

Luffy and the other men grimaced.

"Fucking bastard."

"To his own mama..."

"I met the woman once, she was kind and gentle. Didn't deserve that."

"And that was only the beginning." Continue Rickon. "Frosteye has killed hundreds of men and women in the last twenty years. Many have tried to capture or kill him but none have succeeded."

"Aye, the bastard is slippery as a salmon."

"And cunning as a fox."

"65 Golden Dragons for his head. What would I do with those coins."

"So those bandits are Frosteye's group." The old man looks at the innkeeper.

"I think so." Adam answers.

***

After another night of partying and drinking until passing out, Luffy returned to his room.

"I'm close." He mutters as he flops down on the bed.

A puff of smoke envelops his body.

When the smoke clears his appearance is completely different. Gone was the wrinkled old man, in his place was a young teenager.

`Henge (Transformation Jutsu) is amazing but it is quite demanding to maintain for so many hours.`

Henge is one of the ABC jutsus of the shinobi. It is a simple illusion, a glamour, that changes the appearance of a person.

`The bad thing is that the illusion is not physical, if I changed my appearance to that of an adult man taller than me I would be exposed quite quickly. Somehow Naruto managed to make his transformations physical. If only I knew how to do that.`

Naruto Uzumaki was called the dead-last of his class, a loser. Still that loser managed to not only learn a forbidden jutsu in a couple of hours but also turn a D-rank jutsu into a B-rank jutsu.

`I can't complain either, even with the D-rank version of the Henge I can complete my mission. Also, being an old man has its advantages.`

If you give them a couple of drinks, a group of strange men become friends overnight. Ikarus took advantage of this to befriend the innkeeper and several customers.

`If ​​I earn their trust, it is easier for them to slip up`

Ikarus thought of using the same method he used with Jory to get information about the bandits, but after scouting the inn for a couple of hours and eavesdropping on various conversations he changed his plan.

`A desperate villager was easy to break. A couple of bruises and the guy told me everything he knew. But Addam is someone who knows Frosteye personally. Someone who is on friendly terms with that monster is not to be underestimated. If I had kidnapped him and interrogated him by force, I might not have gotten anything. It's safer to wait for one of the bandits to show up here.`

But to his surprise Addam is not the stone hearted man he thought he was. Once he spent a few hours in his company, he realized that there is more to it.

`Nothing in this world is black or white. There are a million shades of gray. Addam hates Frosteye, I saw it in his eyes, and is ashamed of his relationship with him. He wants nothing to do with the criminal, but for some reason he is forced to.`

Ikarus looks at the ceiling of his room and sighs wearily.

`Everything is more complicated that I thought`

***

The next morning Ikarus goes out fishing with the men again, this time they went out to sea by boat.

"This is how a man is supposed to live."

"Aye."

"Fishing and drinking in good company."

Ned and Rickon entertain Luffy with various stories.

Everyone drinks and enjoys the warmth of the sun.

At noon they return to the inn.

And so between fishing, drinking and exchanging stories, another day passes.

***

The fourth day is when things get interesting.

Luffy is sitting at a table with Rickon.

"And when will you return to the Reach?"

"In a few months." Rickon sighs wearily. "Damn bandits! Because of them I barely made a couple of contracts in Barrowlands."

"Aye. Damn bastards, I pray to the gods to bring you fortune"

They continue talking for a while.

The doors of the tavern flew open.

All eyes turn.

`...` Luffy's eyes gleam with anticipation.

Five men.

All armed.

Ikarus recognizes one of them.