The Shopkeeper of Konoha

After ensuring privacy and asking Deidara to look around to make sure nobody was nearby, Ohnoki took a seat opposite the counter. Aoto was also curious and wanted to see what the drama was all about.

"I will not take much of your time," Ohnoki said. Aoto nodded, eager for him to continue.

"What are those techniques that only you and some of your friends know how to do?" Ohnoki asked, looking straight at him.

"Those are private ninjutsu techniques of the family," Aoto replied, revealing nothing.

"Don't lie to me. We both know that the techniques you are using are not ninjutsu. I have asked multiple sensory-type ninjas from that battle, and everyone said that they didn't sense any chakra. So the techniques are not based on ninjutsu, and I am curious about them," Ohnoki said.

"Firstly, they are our private techniques, and there are special conditions to learn them. And since they are private, we are not obligated to share them with anyone. Secondly, Konoha would have notified us if they thought we didn't use ninjutsu. So your words hold no meaning," Aoto said, adamant and keeping his emotions in check. He remained calm and didn't panic in the slightest.

But it also showed how alert Ohnoki was. No wonder he was a great Tsuchikage after his mentor died. Ohnoki looked deeply into Aoto's eyes and then slowly floated up, putting both of his palms outward.

"You better spill your secrets or you might have to say goodbye to the wealth you hold dear. Your techniques might be fancy, but they won't stand a chance against my particle dismantling jutsu."

Aoto didn't seem fazed by the threat. He just looked at Ohnoki with no emotion on his face and didn't even bother to call his friends for any kind of 'help.' He didn't need one anyway.

"Tsuchikage-san, it's Konoha. You should think before you take any steps," Aoto said. Ohnoki's hands lit up, and a small cylindrical-shaped transparent container formed just in front of them.

"This will be an act of terrorism. You performing a jutsu outside the supervision of the Hokage is already enough to start a war between us. Would you want that?" Aoto continued.

"The peace that you have fostered after so many years, are you ready to lose that just because you got greedy?"

"Or do you want your greediness to bring forward a bloodbath and let your future generations also die out? Since when did you become so egomaniacal, you old geezer?" Aoto's words became more deranged and filled with mockery as he made fun of Ohnoki. This prompted his jutsu to expand, now taking the shape of a cuboid.

"You should put away that jutsu of yours that you are so proud of. This is a great jutsu. In fact, I will say that if you had a huge amount of chakra and some brains, you would probably be the greatest Kage, not Minato stealing all the limelight in the previous war. Think before you take actions," Aoto said.

Ohnoki, who had been silent and slowly levitating, suddenly smirked and then burst out laughing. His jutsu faded away, and he slowly floated down. He continued laughing for quite some time and even wiped away small tear drops from the side of his eyes, caused by laughter.

"I have never seen someone make fun of me when I am threatening me of their lives. This has never happened before. You have got quite the guts to speak to a Kage with such disrespect. I am your customer and your guest. " Ohnoki laughed. Aoto wanted to badly say that it had happened before and he had just forgotten about it.

"Danzo wanted to do the same and now he is no more in the picture. He runs away like a rat when we meet eyes so its useless to threaten me." Aoto said, and this it was Tuschikage's turn to be surprised. Any Kage of any village knew about Danzo and the dark side of Konoha. He knew what kind of man he was, and how for the sake of Konoha he would go to any lengths. 

Now it made sense to him. Danzo probably threatened Aoto of revealing his jutsu but he must have been beaten him badly to actually allow Aoto to operate like everything was normal. His words just made Ohnoki realize that. 

After an awkward silence, Ohnoki asked. 

"Is there any way for me to learn your techniques. Iwagakure will pay a price for this and since you don't belong to the Academy, you can sell us your techniques." Ohnoki said. 

"Then you will have to fulfil the conditions. I won't ask for money." Aoto said. 

"What are the conditions?" Ohnoki was intrigued now. 

"Join the shop and be loyal to the shop." Aoto said. This condition surprised Ohnoki as he expected he would be wanting some kind of secrets of Iwagakure, but this guy only wanted loyalty. Loyalty was one of the most fickle thing in this world and expecting an unwavering loyalty was just like expecting money to drop from the pockets of strangers. 

Both of them have extreme low chances of happening. But he had a feeling that there was more to the conditions than 'loyalty'. 

"I will think about it." Ohnoki left promptly after that. Deidara was already waiting for him outside and didn't seem to know what had gone down inside. They walked slowly towards their hotel while many people around would either show their respect to him or ignore. 

The hatred of the last war couldn't be just wiped away in a day or two and he didn't mind the glares of hate either. His mind was occupied with some other matter. In the shop, he was actually ready to kidnap or coerce Aoto. 

But the moment his jutsu was ready to work its 'magic', he felt an unprecedented sense of doom. Something told him that if he made a move, he would definitely suffer. 

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