The Shopkeeper of Konoha

After the Third Great Ninja War, Hidden Leaf and Hidden Sand were working to mend their connections, and started to occasionally conducted business between them. Konan had most likely entered under the guise of a real Sand merchant or shinobi based on that assumption.

Since a desert needed to be crossed, a businessmen needed to be strong enough so the person definitely needed to be a shinobi. Even though the village possessed the greatest parcel of territory under its control, it suffered greatly because necessary roads and communication hadn't yet been created.

"It's irrelevant. The waiter himself would serve the drink to you. You don't need to assume that I spiked my food or something with poison." Aoto meekly responded and motioned for the server assisting them to bring a little glass of sake.

Konan wasn't exactly fearful of Aoto when she looked at him. They were roughly around the same age at that moment and being a shinobi who didn't belong to the village would make herself more secure. It was on the basis that a village like Konoha who had just suffered an attack of Kyuubi wouldn't want to start a war by killing someone from the Sand village at the moment.

She blushed a little when Aoto was forthright and truthful about her concerns. Aoto was aware that the blush was only a facade and continued nevertheless.

"I'm grateful. Never before have anyone contacted me in this manner. I am Konan." Konan seemed to take the hint and flirted back a little. From a distance, Shikuro was perplexed by what he was witnessing. Since he could remember a small portion of her face from the war, then how come she could get inside Konoha with no stops.

She was a citizen of Hidden Rain, a nation whose borders had just recently been closed, not Hidden Sand village. Did the Root fail to make a check before entering the village? How could checks have been missed by such a large margin?

"Hello, My name is Aoto. And I am a businessman."

And why the hell was Aoto interested in her? Was he betraying Konoha?

"So, presuming you're here for business, what sort of industry do you work in?" Asked Aoto.

"Uh.. That is a secret mission and is only for the eyes of the top levels of Konoha and Suna." Konan answered in a very unassuming manner.

"Ah.. Sorry for the question. You see, I'm trying to work with Sunagakure on commercial potential. Therefore, I had to be certain that I was speaking with the right person." Aoto posed a direct question.

"You are. But what kind of business opportunities?" Konan was now taken aback. She wasn't really interested when Aoto first approached her using this novel conversational strategy. However, now that he was talking about business, she heard him.

Since Kakuzu hadn't yet joined the Akatsuki, their nation and the organization was severely short on resources. They needed an income source and if there was any business opportunities with Konoha for the time being she would gladly accept.

Of course she would have to use her influence to make sure the deal went to Hidden Rain and not Hidden Sand.

"Yes. Thus, as you can see, I'm searching for a few unique goods that, in my opinion, only the Hidden Sand can produce..." As he displayed designs for a CPU, the processors and other electronic items, Aoto spoke. Konan was astounded to observe Aoto's enthusiasm for these peculiar sketches. Aoto continued by describing what these items were and how much he needed them for his new creation.

She had a general understanding of what Aoto desired, despite the fact that he didn't grasp the terminology he was using.

"So you want the Hidden Sand village to make some products that needs to be attached to a video screen, which will allow you to compute things faster than a human brain."

"Yes, sometimes this is a convenience, but human brain is still faster and better than the thing I want to develop. But you are right. I do need small things that I call processors in order to make it and I feel like the Hidden sand village would definitely make those things." Added Aoto. After this, Konan switched to thinking mode.

Even though she didn't understand any of Aoto's technical terminology, she had a strange feeling that Nagato might comprehend whatever Aoto was talking about. It was due to his Asura path, which was based on mechanical weapons and other technical matters that he appeared to be knowledgeable about.

"Uh.. I don't understand what you are saying but can I take the drawings with me in order to show it to my village?" It was extremely ludicrous that Aoto had approached her in the first place, and Konan knew it was probably outrageous because she could tell right away that it was some sort of confidential matter.

"I apologize for that. Since it is crucial to our strategy, I am unable to provide you all the drawings; in fact, I have only showed the system's processing portion. We still hold major things close to ourselves as it is of huge importance to us." Aoto shook his head, appearing disappointed that Konan couldn't decide.

"That's okay. However, I will still need to speak with the village's leaders at Hidden Sand. Then I can respond to you with a specific response." said Konan.

"That's alright. I'm ready to wait. Konoha will be able to create enough for itself, but I also want to sell it outside of Konoha to make some money, and as you can see, Konoha is heavily invested in this." Aoto even gave his excuse of refusing to share all the drawings and intricacies of the system.

"You don't have to explain. I'm aware of this already. It is already very fortunate that you approached someone outside of Konoha in order to share such an important thing. Sunagakure will make every effort to work together. I promise you that."