"Huh!"
"Yeah the yellow haired guy. Haven't we been listening to the fox kid all this time! I came across the kid. He was watching the Anbu masks on a shop. And the shopkeeper had the audacity to throw the fox mask at him and tell him to go away." Corazon said. Aoto hearing this could already imagine what might have happened as he had also seen this scene in the anime.
"Oh! so what did you do?" Aoto asked as he was intrigued what Corazon would do then.
"Well, I threw some money at the shopkeeper's face and told him he could keep the change." Corazon said.
"I thought you wouldn't intervene." Aoto said with a smile on his face. Quite proud of what he did.
"In case of Law, I refrained and did the opposite to make sure that kids didn't get near my brother. But here I have people who I can rely on." Corazon said. This made Aoto happy, thinking that this guy really trusted them to even say that.
"Well, anything more happened?" Aoto asked.
"He was rightfully embarrassed and berated me for being a friend of a demon and said that I am a spy since I don't belong to Konoha in the first place." Corazon said. Aoto's brow rose up. It seemed like Aoto earning money had rubbed some people in a bad way. He was now quite famous and the people in the market knew who he was and his friends.
They also knew that Aoto's friends didn't belong to Konoha in the beginning and were just refugees. Konoha didn't have a huge hoard of refugees since the War. Now that Corazon and others came much later, nobody actually knew of their background. So hostility was there and also jealousy.
"That was long way coming I guess. You didn't fight with him, did you?" Aoto asked.
"I am not that stupid."
"You are stupid enough to believe the words and follow the Navy in that world, knowing fully that the Navy was just under the Celestial Dragons." Aoto said with a scoff.
"That was different. I left with the kid. The shopkeeper was joined by some other nearby and started shouting. I left the kid in his home safely." Corazon said as he puffed up another smoke.
"You did good." Aoto said.
"But honestly I wanted to strangle these men. They are so gullible." Corazon said.
"People who are ignorant are always gullible.. Don't care about them." Aoto said and didn't bother more. Naruto was under the eyes of higher ups and Corazon too knew of this and if they wanted to help, they couldn't. Not at least outrightly.
Corazon just seemed frustrated and continued to just puff while Aoto started playing again. But little did he know that this wasn't the end of the small episode. It was evening when a new drama unfolded. Aoto knew that some of villagers were a little jealous of him by now. He had amassed a huge amount of wealth and it didn't bore well with some of the shopkeepers.
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He was just a small shopkeeper, not even 30 years old, but he had more money than they could hope to earn in their entire lifetimes. They never openly discussed this, but Aoto could sense that he was being alienated from the "shopkeepers" community over the past years and interactions.
The shopkeeper at whom Corazon had thrown the money had come to his home, and he wasn't alone. He had arrived with other shopkeepers and stood right at the door of the bakery shop. Aoto, who was almost asleep and lying in his bed, woke up groggily and came downstairs.
"Who the hell came to disturb my good sleep?" Aoto was a bit irritated by all the noise and slowly opened the shutter of the bakery to see what was happening. The others were busy at the library, and he was the only one taking a nap.
After he opened the shutter of the shop, he saw many people standing there, their eyes cold and accusatory, looking at Aoto as if he were a criminal. Aoto glanced at these people for a moment. There was complete silence, and then Aoto proceeded to bring the shutter down right in front of their faces.
"I am too sleepy for this nonsense," Aoto muttered as he prepared to return to his sleep. However, it wasn't that easy. The people who had arrived, including the shopkeeper of the mask shop, began banging on the shutter again, this time with more force and shouting.
Aoto, who had been ready to climb back into his bed, sighed. He had wanted to avoid this confrontation, but it seemed unavoidable. After a moment's pause, Aoto raised the shutter again, but this time he didn't open it halfway.
"Aoto Yamazaki... You are harboring a criminal in your establishment," one of the men shouted.
"You are sheltering a spy, and you need to hand him over to the police and the Hokage administration," another man insisted.
"Yes, yes, you should do it right now."
Aoto, keeping his calm, asked, "Why, and who do you think is the criminal I am harboring?"
"Corazon... Your employee... He is attempting to use the fox kid to destroy Konoha," the shopkeeper claimed.
"That fox kid... He has a name, you know," Aoto replied.
"Who cares what his name is... He's a demon, and your employee is using him to destroy Konoha," another man chimed in.
Aoto asked, "Oh, where is the evidence?" because he knew these people were just part of the mob and not very rational.
"Evidence... Everyone saw how he threw money in my face when I gave the fox mask to the demon kid," the shopkeeper stated.
"Really? From what I've heard and what others have witnessed, it seemed like you threw the mask at the kid and told him to fuck off. It was Corazon who, out of anger, threw money at your face and rescued the kid from relentless bullying," Aoto clarified.