The Shopkeeper of Konoha

Konan getting the green signal talked with Aoto more in order to understand him a bit better. Though he had initially approached her to flirt, it soon became clear that, having seen her leave from another village, his true intentions were to do business.

"Honestly, I didn't see that you came from Hidden Sand, otherwise I would have approached you directly on business deal. I apologize for it."

"No.. I have never seen somebody approach me in such a unique manner. It was a new experience. Hehe, people should employ this technique more frequently when approaching women."

"I'm happy you liked it," Added Aoto. Inoichi and the others approached Aoto and Konan, who were engaged in conversation, once Inoichi had become sufficiently sober to stand up a little.

"Yo.. You got yourself a beautiful chick." said Inoichi. Whether or not this embarrassed Aoto was of little concern to him. Konan blushed a little while Aoto seemed to feel like he was ready to hide his head under the ground in shame.

"Inoicho-san.. Please refrain from making things worse. We are only talking about some business  deals."

"Business deals.. Hick.. Sorry.. What kind of deals?" Inoichi questioned, although his eyes were somewhat red and heavy. He always looked to be on the verge of losing his balance.

"It's all right, Inoichi-san. Why don't you go home today and we will talk about this later." Aoto told Inoichi and turned to Konan and said "I am extremally sorry for their behavior. They are my coworkers on the project we just discussed." Aoto introduced them roughly.

"And this is Shikuro.. He is my bodyguard. You see I am not a ninja and never graduated from academy so the Hokage felt like I needed some kind of protection." Added Aoto. She was unaware of his identification as genin because he didn't carry a headband as the others usually do.

Konan nodded because she didn't see a headband either. It was reasonable that Aoto would have some sort of security because he was too precious to not have one. Due to this, Konan developed a greater regard for Aoto and increased his motivation to seal the deal. The Hokage would never appoint a bodyguard on someone who was of no consequence.

Additionally, she could see that Shikuro didn't have a favorable impression of her, which was logical given that she was from outside of Konoha and that Aoto was actively attempting to forge a commercial relationship that would benefit a different village.

Since the Third Great Ninja War just concluded, such prejudices were prevalent. And the fact that someone from the Hidden Sand community had even been permitted to enter was already a miracle.

"Pardon me. I will have to take them to their homes or their wives would come after me for stealing their husbands and the husbands will think I have kidnapped their wives.. Hahahaha.."

"Hehehe.. Don't worry about it. I already have the address to your shop so I will visit when I get the permissions from my village." Konan grinned. Aoto bowed, bid her good night, and then hauled Inoichi outside by the shoulder.

"Hey.. Where is the girl we saw earlier? Eh? Why are we leaving now? Hick.. I can drink more." said Inochi.

"Yes.. Yes... We are going out to drink more."

When Aoto saw these men, he was a little perplexed. They were supposed to be all cool and serious from what he could remember, but he was seeing Fugaku and now even Inoichi have a side which was contrary to what he knew.

Maybe raising kids transformed them and eventually gave them a more "daddy" vibe. As they made their way to Konoha via the streets, Shikuro was taking care of the others. The others were blabbering from their mouth as they delivered them to their homes. Since there weren't many to begin with, it only took around 30 minutes to deliver everyone to their homes, with Inoichi being the last. Thankfully there were John and Arya to help them.

'I need to bring cars and crude oil or else I will die with the problems here' Aoto thought as he prayed that the system would allow him to bring petrol and let him sell it. A train, which was depicted in the Boruto and Naruto movies, was predicted to exist in the future. Aoto questioned whether coal or gasoline served as the fuel.

They returned to the shop after finishing. Only Aoto and Shikuro didn't consume much alcohol during the entire celebration, so they were fine. Shikuro was eerily silent throughout the entire ordeal, and Aoto could sense that Shikuro was desperate to understand what was happening.

"You have questions. Ask away." As he poured himself some tea, Aoto spoke. Tea was a good cure for their feeling of being inebriated, which they needed to get rid of.

"Why are you dealing with the enemies of Konoha?" Shikuro questioned, believing Aoto to be betraying Konoha. He was interested in how Aoto learned about the incident in Hidden Rain Village, but he could wait to ask that.

"Enemies? Konoha was the one who initially attacked them. Ambushed an organization who just wanted to negotiate peace. And you're going to call them your enemies?" Asked Aoto. Shikuro then realized that Konoha was the one who had originally been in the wrong. They had assaulted the recently founded Akatsuki organization as a result of Danzo.

"Konoha has fought battles with a number of nations, and we are now establishing contacts with them in the hopes of establishing peace. There has almost never been eternal friends, it is just benefits. That's what most of humanity understood until they face a threat that could just wipe them out."

'Wipe out humanity? Is there any such threat?' Shikuro was unable to think of or visualize a scenario in which humanity would vanish from the face of the planet. Not yet, at least.

"I can't change the fact with what had happened but she is an enemy of Konoha at the moment, and you seem to know whatever happened before. So why are you calling the tiger into your home since they don't look at you in a good way."