It's quite late at night

It was actually quite a swift action. The Lannisters mixed with some Thornes soldiers didn't stand a chance. The element of surprise was theirs to wield, and they used it to devastating effect. Swift and silent as shadows, the Uchiha warriors struck with precision, catching the Lannisters off guard and throwing them into disarray.

Some of the soldiers sensed something was wrong and launched an attack. But it didn't materialize, and they were crushed before they could even shout or ask for help properly. If it were daylight, maybe they would have some kind of help, but choosing the night to attack was the most dumb thing they could ever do.

They didn't stand a chance.

From the shadows emerged Fugaku, Arya, Ned, and Jon. They were the ones who were here at the moment while the others had returned back to Konoha, including Loki. It had been some time since the first meeting with the Thornes, so of course they wouldn't be here.

Only Jon and Arya come to visit this place quite often, and today was one of those days that they were present. When the Lannisters and the Thornes first showed up on the distant border, the Uchihas' guards immediately alerted the castle. They instantly went into defensive mode.

In order to take some advice, Fugaku asked for Ned, to which he promptly replied. His allegiance lied with the Kingdom, not with the small Houses, so morally he was right, and that's what Ned cared about at the end.

"That was boring," Arya said, not at all impressed. She wanted to go and kill these men, but Ned didn't allow it. She was his daughter, and of course, no matter how high and mighty she was at the moment, as a father, he could never allow her to go to a battlefield.

"War and battles are not meant to be exciting," Ned said, as he couldn't understand how his daughter was excited about the killing part.

"Wrong, they are pretty. I have been in multiple ones which are interesting," Arya argued back. Ned was speechless hearing his daughter say those words casually. Maybe he needed to talk with Aoto and set some things straight. Soon one of the shinobis brought a soldier to them.

The soldier, dressed in ragged clothes and disguised as a bandit, came after being dragged by his collar by the shinobi. He had horror and pain written all over his face, and it seemed like he had been punched in the face, probably because the shinobi might have gotten irritated by his screaming.

Arya did some hand signs, and soon the earth itself moved and took the man away from the shinobi and held him high using tentacles that seemed to come out of the earth itself. The soldier was horrified seeing that as he could hardly see through his one swollen eye.

"Where are you from?" 

The soldier was silent and seemed to refuse to speak. Arya took out her sword and placed it on his neck. This made the soldier twitch and look at Arya, he didn't recognize these people, but he did recognize Ned. He couldn't understand how Ned Stark was here, since it was proven that he was in King's Landing, and the Hand of the King couldn't leave the capital so easily.

So how was he able to travel such a long distance, and that too without the knowledge of anyone? This was bad news. He wanted to make a run to the small outpost and say what he had found, but living in this world he knew how he would be treated.

"I ask again, where are you from?"

"Fuck you, you tiny piece of who...." The man couldn't even finish his words before his head was chopped off. And the one to swing the sword was Ned himself. He didn't care who he belonged to, but he wouldn't let anyone talk in such a way to his daughter, not after what he had known.

"Well, there goes the torture," Arya said.

"It's not needed. They will understand what happened here once they see nobody is returning. Get rid of the bodies and the outpost," Fugaku ordered, and two shinobis vanished to execute his order.

"Maybe the Lannisters now would officially declare war upon us," Jon said.

"Then why don't we just kill him. At least he doesn't need to die by the hands of his own son," Arya said.

"What?" Ned asked.

"Tyrion killed his father, but I don't think it will happen in this timeline. Because Joffrey can only die by my hands and my hands alone," Arya said, but Ned was confused, and Jon had to reiterate what Tyrion did and how he was the Hand of the King for two Kings.

This surprised Ned as he didn't expect Tyrion to be the good lad.

"Then we should lend him a hand," Ned said. Jon just shrugged his shoulders. Arya opened a portal for her father to go back home while both of them took care of their own work here in Bronzegate.

----

After 2 days.

Cersei had come to meet Ned at his office, quite late at night. If anyone knew that she was going towards his room, one would think that these two were having an affair. Thankfully, there was nothing of that sort. Ned was reading a book, which his daughter had given him to get an understanding of her world.

As he read about her world, the more horrified he was.

Knock... Knock..

Ned got up and opened the door, while keeping his dagger on the side. He knew that he was being protected by magic, thanks to Winry's new locket, which would defend him from any physical attack for an hour before losing its power, and the dagger was also a magical one, making it sharper. Sadly, he couldn't use it to its full potential as he wasn't a sorcerer or a mage himself.

Suffice to say, he was surprised to see her so late at night.

"My Queen, it's quite late at night."

----

Read 50 chapters ahead on my p@treo.com/thelightedghost