The Shopkeeper of Konoha

"It appears like you people are completely brainless. Because of the lengthy history of bloodshed in this area, only politics and war are understood. Have you ever considered the possibility of winning a war of a different kind without lifting a finger?" Asked Aoto.

"What?" Shikuro was baffled by Aoto's meaning. He was talking as if there could be another kind of war. He had only experienced bloodshed-filled wars during his entire existence. War can be won by politics, but persistent carnage was required.

"Let's use the business deal I'm trying to make as an example. Who do you believe will gain more if we create a successful trade route?" Asked Aoto.

"Uh.. The Hidden Rain village..." Shikuro replied.

"Are you dumb or what? Jeez.. We are working in a shop. Who do you believe gains from our sales?" Asked Aoto.

"Uh.. They receive the items, while we receive the funds. So I guess we both benefit from this." Shikuro responded after giving it some thought.

"Correct. Who will profit if we strike a deal with Konan?" Aoto asked again.

"Both of us?!" Shikuro responded after fully comprehending everything.

"Correct. And that is the reason we need to make deal with them because both of us will benefit." Aoto responded, happy to have understood the message quickly.

"But they are enemies. They will come back to bite us. We could have done the same business deal with some other village who will not betray us."

"Shikuro, every village might potentially pose a threat to Konoha as a whole. Not just them, either. Even Hidden Sand which has suffered a lot in the war can be deadly to us." Aoto remarked that he was unconcerned at all by Konan's animosity.

"So you are banking on the fact that the Hidden Rain or whatever organization she is representing will do nothing to us because the benefits will be high enough?" Shikuro reasoned and at last understood why Aoto was so determined to strike a settlement with the adversaries.

"Seems like you have some brains." As Shikuro finally understood it, Aoto grinned.

"Then why her? She is a direct enemy and not make deal with the higher ups of Hidden Rain or other villages who can offer the same services that you want?  She even impersonated someone from Hidden Sand. That already is a falsehood."

"Their village, no, her friend knows more about machinery than I do, which is why I went to her instead of going after various villages. Her friend can help me establish industries and supply chains that can help me sell what I want across the world and also benefit Konoha with lots of money." Added Aoto. Shikuro was shocked by this.

He had no idea that Aoto was even familiar with Konan's friend or their area of specialty. How in the world does he know this stuff? What was he?

"Do you have some kind of intelligence network that I don't know about?" Only through careful consideration was Shikuro able to reach this conclusion.

"Hahaha.. As I previously stated, you have a lot to learn and know. Don't worry about it. If the commercial transaction is successful, Konoha and the entire world will change, and perhaps there will be fewer wars and conflicts as a result." Added Aoto.

"Uhh... You have so much confidence on this computer thing?" Shikuro had been with him for a while and, thanks to Inoichi and others, was made aware of his newest creation. He didn't have much faith in it, but Aoto seemed overly thrilled about it. It was truly strange when he spoke as though he had seen the world overrun with computers.

"You'll find out soon," Aoto grinned as he made his bed and shooed Shikuro out of the way so he could tend to his toddler. Shikuro wanted to know more but Aoto wouldn't speak anything more about how he came to know of what had happened in the Hidden Rain village.

Everyone started working the following morning to make this computer idea a reality. Now that they had the money, they should get to work. Since there were no supply chains or industries, they had to manufacture this manually, which took a lot of time, but Aoto and the cryptology department were enthusiastic about the initiative.

The following few days saw them working incredibly hard, and Aoto almost didn't have time to visit his bakery at all. It was advantageous that he had several subordinates and could devote his efforts to the computer manufacturing process.

It took more than three months to complete the process, and now it was time to view the results. Even though video technology has improved significantly, outdated CRT tube screens were still in use. However, Aoto didn't mind. As soon as computers are used, technology will evolve rapidly.

Maybe once Naruto enrolls at the academy, he won't have to go out and try to have fun; he can play video games at home. The first CPU was created and then sent to the cryptology division. The people put in a lot of effort over the last few months to make this. Aoto was good in software and not hardware, so he could only give very vague expertise when the processors, motherboards, the hard drives, the fan and other components were made.

The department of cryptology was largely responsible for the preliminary work. Aoto was therefore even more appreciative of them. And in order to make the first inauguration, the whole cryptology department, Aoto and his band and the Hokage had shown up.

Aoto had been chirping about it rather frequently when he went to KFC to have some of his favorite chicken popcorn, so the Hokage, who had funded this, also wanted to see how useful this "computer" was.

"Aoto, you previously claimed to already have the 'software' necessary to make the system function. Do you really have it?"

"Of course." Aoto said as he brought out a bunch of CDs. And on top of the bunch it was written Windows 98.

"Windows 98? What a weird name. What does 98 mean?"