Arc 3 - Do what you gotta do

Ikarus checks the state of his body. His torso is wrapped in bandages, the slightest movement aggravating the dull ache he continually feels. His right leg also hurts but not as much.

"What's the last thing you remember boy?"

"I was walking through the woods, I had just fought some ban-people." He is not going to mention the bandits, it is clear that this group has quite a lot of influence in the area. Ikarus is certain that they are the ones who killed the woman and her children, and then displayed their corpses in the village square to keep the villagers submissive.

There is no doubt that that village pays tribute to that group of bandits, if they have a village under their control who knows how many more they could have.

His camp was not far from the village, when he fled he could not have gotten very far given his condition and he doubted that the old woman could carry him far. So the old woman's hut must be close to the village, within the area controlled by the bandits.

`Better not to mention them, just in case`

"Fight? More like they used you as a practice dummy." The old woman snorts. "At least your mind is intact." She murmurs.

"Intact? What do you mean?"

"The Poison Boy"

"Poison?!" Ikarus tried to get up, the pain in his upper body increased tremendously and he groaned in agony.

"Moron." The old woman helps him to bed and goes to a cabinet, takes out some herbs and grinds them.

She goes back to Ikarus and gives it to him.

"Eat."

"What is it?"

Branda snorts and mumbles something about ungrateful brats.

"It will help you with the pain."

Ikarus decides to trust her, if she wanted to harm him she had many opportunities while he was unconscious.

By eating the herbal paste he feels how the pain subsides.

"It works!"

The old woman looks at him with a raised eyebrow.

"You mentioned poison earlier..."

"Aye, the arrows were covered in poison, the nasty kind." The old woman looks out the window thoughtfully "It's a miracle it didn't kill you or drive you crazy. That mixture of poisons..."

"That mix..." Ikarus urges her to continue.

"I've seen what it does to people, I only know one person who has survived, although that person would be better off dead. Her mind was messed up, she couldn't even speak anymore." Branda's eyes are cloudy, lost in her memories.

"You seem familiar with that mixture, you knew how to heal me." Branda raises an eyebrow "It's a very common mix of poisons or-"

"- or I know who shot you." The old woman looks at him with a sly smile. "His name is Benjen Snow, a criminal as cruel as he is cunning."

"Do you know him?"

"Just for his infamy."

"Infamy?"

Branda gives him a weird look.

"You've lived under a rock boy. Benjen Frosteye is one of the North's most infamous criminals. Wanted from the Neck to the Gift."

"Oh." That name was never mentioned in the series so Ikarus is not familiar with him.

`Westeros is a much more complex place, Martin only scratched the surface`

***

That day Ikarus doesn't do much, he stays in bed all day. A couple of hours after waking up the old woman changes his bandages and puts a herbal paste on his wounds. Its purposes are varied, from disinfecting to speeding up healing.

Given the advanced state of healing of his wounds, Ikarus is quite convinced that it works.

`Or maybe it's my Senju physiology, my clan is known for its powerful body and vitality`

Ikarus talks to Branda for a while, but he spends most of the time lost in his own thoughts.

He berates himself for letting arrogance get the best of him, for letting his guard down and not listening to his instincts.

`This is how Gohan must have felt after Goku died stopping Cell. The arrogance, the pride... I have to be careful. If I let my power go to my head... It only takes an instant, a second. If the first arrow had pointed a few inches to the left...`

Another thing that occupies many of his thoughts are his dreams.

ʻI don't remember much about them. I remember that in one I was in a clearing in the forest training my aim, in another I was fighting a teen, in another there was a beautiful woman with golden hair like the sun and in another some men were chasing me -they were Uchihas. Those dreams are memories... The memories of this body. It makes no sense! I shouldn't be able to remember Riku's life. But-`

***

Ikarus spent another two days in Branda's care, when his body healed enough that he could move on his own without crying out in pain, he prepared to leave.

He wants to hunt down Frosteye and his group, he is going to fulfill his promise to Mina and her children.

The old woman gave him a bag of food and looked at him with cloudy eyes.

"The gods will be harsh but generous, don't let adversity break your spirit child."

***

Ikarus decides to train some jutsu while his body fully recovers.

`It has been six days and my wounds are almost healed. This is the power of the vitality of the Senju clan!`

The young shinobi spends the next few days training in the forest, on the fourth day after leaving the old woman he returns to the Fjorn village.

***

The moon is high in the sky lighting up the streets of Fjorn.

Sheltered under a cloak, Ikarus moves in the shadows, avoiding being seen, with one goal in mind: to kidnap the villager who attacked him the other day.

He doesn't know where Frosteye's camp could be but since this village is under his control some villager must know something.

He just needs to know the location of some member of Frosteye's gang - then Ikarus will beat the location of the bandit leader out of him.

Earlier that day he sneaked into the village and found the location of the man's house, he was going to kidnap him then but getting him out of the village without anyone seeing them is almost impossible in broad daylight.

`If ​​I had all of Riku's memories I could have done it.`

Ikarus arrives at the man's house, careful not to make too much noise; he opens the window and goes inside.

The man - a plain-looking middle-aged guy with brown hair and eyes - is sleeping in his bed.

Ikarus walks over to the bed and places one hand over his mouth and nose, holding him with the other as he begins to struggle.

"!"

In a few minutes his body loses all its strength and he falls unconscious. Ikarus grabs a shirt and gags him, ties his hands and feet with rope and carries him on his shoulder.

He walks out the door carrying the man like he's a sack of potatoes.

***

Ikarus throws the unconscious man into a creek.

He wakes up.

He looks around scared, tries to free himself from his bonds but can't.

Ikarus grabs his arm and throws him a couple of meters, he lands grunting in pain.

"Do you remember me?" The man looks at him scared

Ikarus removes the gag.

"What are you?!"

"That doesn't matter. Tell me where Frosteye's camp is."

The man looks at him like he's crazy and refuses to answer.

Ikarus grabs him by the neck and lifts him off the ground, once the man is on his feet the shinobi punches him in the stomach. The man spits blood.

Then Ikarus grabs him by the neck again and squeezes. The man tries to struggle but his strength is not match for Ikarus's. When his face takes on a purple tint, Ikarus releases him.

The man falls to the ground coughing and gasping for air.

"You fear what Frosteye might do to you." Ikarus crouches down to his level and looks him straight in the eye. "But you should fear what I will do to you if you don't tell me what I want to know."

"I-I don't know anything! No one knows where his camp is! I swear by the gods-"

Ikarus finds it hard to believe the peasant's words, after loosening his tongue a little more, the man answered all his questions.

The Bloodbrothers are a bandit group that formed during the Rebellion, taking advantage of the chaos on the continent to terrorize the North. With the lords and banners gone there was no one to stop their expansion. By the time the war was over the bandit group had grown into a remarkable force with over a hundred members.

They are also quite intelligent, operating mostly in the Barrowlands, taking advantage of the fact that the Lord is dead and the Lady is too lost in her mourning to do a good job of managing her domain.

They arrived in Fjorn a couple of weeks ago, the first thing they did was ransack the village, kidnap the beautiful young women and kill anyone who tried to rebel against them. Their deaths were not quick, they were publicly tortured and then their bodies were left in the square for all to see. They forbade the villagers to bury the deceased, some villagers took the bodies and buried them secretly. The next day Mina and her family were publicly tortured, their bodies left in the square with the same warning.