Spill some secrets

Aoto and Jiraiya went into a verbal fight, and Naruto hopped in too. Sasuke was dumbfounded seeing the whole dynamic and drama that was going on. At first, he was surprised, and then he just decided to ignore the three and concentrate on the lamb chops offered to him. At this age, after the death of his family, it was him who always cooked and took care of himself.

Now that he was served homemade food, he was both happy and a bit nostalgic. He missed his mother's handmade food and thus was a bit emotional. Of course, he wouldn't show this to anyone else. Along with him, Yoruichi too was eating her fill served to her.

Thankfully, their arguments stopped as all three of them got hungry and started eating. While eating, Naruto narrated what had happened, and Jiraiya also kept his ears up. He was surprised that the black cat was so powerful and looked deeply into the cat this time.

"What are you looking at, old man?" Yoruichi barked at him, which made Jiraiya stiffen up and almost choke on his food, all at the same time. Sasuke and Naruto just smirked seeing him like this.

But at the end of the day, it was a hearty meal, and Aoto made sure everyone had their fill. Jiraiya didn't run off this time and actually taught both Sasuke and Naruto how to stand on water. This was a new technique, and both of them were elated to learn one.

Thus, they went to the courtyard and got to work immediately. Jiraiya was happy seeing the young ones in Konoha eager to learn. As they were learning and Jiraiya was overlooking them, Aoto appeared in front of him.

"You are leaving?" Aoto asked.

"Sadly, yes. I have been looking for Tsunade, but she is a tough nut to find," Jiraiya said, his voice carrying nostalgia and, if one could sense, there was love and care too.

"Jiraiya-sama... I think it's time to confess your feelings for her," Aoto said.

"What?" Jiraiya didn't expect such words from Aoto, as almost nobody knew of his love for Tsunade. Aoto didn't reply and just looked at Jiraiya.

"How do you know?" He asked.

"Your octaves fluctuate a bit when you talk about her. Never happened before. It would be better if you curb your pervy behavior, and maybe she will take you more seriously. You look at women just so that you can show you are not serious about life, but we know that it is just a facade. You need to take her seriously. It's not too late," Aoto said.

"You are speaking of something on which you have no idea," Jiraiya said.

"Jiraiya-sama, a war is coming soon. It's best if you take my words seriously," Aoto said. Those words made Jiraiya, who was in normal mode, shift to serious mode.

"What do you mean?" Jiraiya asked.

"I mean what I said. Take your life seriously and pull your act together," Aoto said.

"No. About the war? What do you mean? What do you know?" Jiraiya asked.

"War is war, Jiraiya-sama," Aoto reiterated and walked away. Jiraiya wanted to ask and force him to spill, but for some reason, he felt like asking him more wouldn't give him any answers. Hiruzen had always told him to be careful of Aoto and though he wasn't very happy with his teacher, he did take his words seriously. 

He had heard how Hiruzen was hell-bent on making him the Hokage, but he always avoided that. He had powerful people under him, but even then, he never showed any ambition for power. He had wrapped the daimyo around his fingers but still refused to involve himself politically and control the nation.

Aoto had connections with other villages too but still only dealt in business. An ambition-less person like him said that a war was coming. Now the question was, who was the enemy? The terrorist organization Akatsuki? Or something more sinister?

He made it feel like the war was going to affect everything and people were going to die. His words actually made him feel that Aoto himself might not be alive by the end, which meant that the enemies were way too strong.

If Aoto knew what Jiraiya was thinking, he would have given this man a standing ovation. Just in a few words, this man was able to decipher so many things and even came close to the truth. But sadly, Jiraiya had no idea how deep the water was. He went back to his shop while Jiraiya was left with his thoughts.

The start of the exams was still a few days away and there were people coming in and out. Palickos were being sold left and right, and so were the other products. The sale of computers in the store run by Ino-Shika-Cho was so high that all three genins were asked to help their families.

The manga sales were at an all-time high, and Corazon actually asked for help from Shikuro. Shikuro refused because he was busy teaching his son the various techniques specific to their clan and wanted his son to become a chunin in this exam itself.

And Torune, being the model child he was, vowed to make his father proud. All in all, Aoto was getting richer, and Urahara was having a hard time.

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The next day.

Sasuke and Naruto slept in the same room, and though they grumbled at each other, they did sleep at the end. Sasuke and Naruto weren't able to master 'walking on water' and thus went to practice again. Jiraiya had already left, but he did say that he would be back after the first round of exams.

Naruto and Sasuke vowed to finish it before his return. Now that both of the kids were busy, he was sitting alone in his shop with customers coming in and out. He was having a good time explaining things when he heard a notification from the system.

Hearing the notification gave him joy as he thought he would get another upgrade. But nothing like that. The system notified him that someone known has entered the territory.

An old friend of his.

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