"Kisuke... Start teaching Naruto Hakuda (hand-to-hand combat). He will need it," Aoto said. Kisuke just looked at Aoto for a second and then at Yoruichi.
"Why am I being dragged into this?" Kisuke asked.
"Because Yoruichi-san is busy basking in the sun all day long," Aoto said.
"Are you saying that I am a lazy person?" Yoruichi, who was busy eating, said in a sharp tone.
"No, he is saying that you are more spoiled than all of us," Unohana said, not caring at all for their feelings. This made Yoruichi angry. Normally she would give another sarcastic reply, but since it was Unohana, she didn't say a word.
Unohana commanded a different kind of respect from them, and everyone was a bit afraid of her. They talked about more things and the upcoming problem with the Hyuga.
The next day, Naruto went to school as usual, and along the way, he met Hinata, who thanked him profusely. Naruto didn't seem to care much about it and told her to be strong so she could beat anyone she wanted. To this, Naruto just nodded.
But from that day, a new kind of training started for Naruto. Kisuke would give him pointers for half an hour every day and teach him hand-to-hand combat. This made Naruto happy as he was finally being taught how to do hand-to-hand combat. In addition to this, Naruto was finally able to do magic, so he started training in that matter too.
A few more weeks passed, and finally, the day of the Hyuga chief's birthday arrived. That meant the Head ninja of Kumogakure was here. In fact, a few days ago, Hiruzen showed up and asked if he would like to extend his business to Kumogakure.
"Hokage-sama, are you serious? Kumogakure has been on our tail for such a long time, and Konoha is willing to make a deal with them?" Aoto asked.
"Aoto, we can't hold on to our grudges forever," Hiruzen said.
"You are wrong. People who lost someone will hold on to that pain for a lifetime. At best, they may forgive but never forget. And the only reason humanity can let go of their grudges and work together is if there is a greater threat to them. Only then will they all come together. Don't believe me? Remember what happened to the Uzumaki clan?" Aoto asked. This made Hiruzen shut up and not know how to reply.
Aoto seemed to know about the Uzumaki too, which meant he knew about Naruto's lineage at least a bit, if not everything. He had made a huge secret of the fact that Naruto was the son of Minato, but the fact of the Uzumaki was known to many villages, so they couldn't just cover it up.
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Hiruzen was silent for a bit and then asked, "So you don't want to expand your business?" He was both happy and sad because Aoto rejected having some business arrangements with Kumogakure. Happy because it meant that Aoto was loyal to Konoha, and a bit sad too because it meant money wouldn't come in the same way it did from the Land of Iron.
So that was the decision that Aoto had taken, and thus not even bothered to talk with anyone from Kumogakure.
At evening,
Aoto and Kisuke had been invited to the celebrations of the Hyuga chief's birthday. They had also taken a gift for him. The celebrations weren't something very grand and very few people were invited. Among the invitations, there were many known faces.
Almost all of the heads of clans had come to congratulate him for the birthday. Even Fugaku had shown up for the birthday.
"Ah Aoto.. You are here... Why does Arya not show up now a days.. Lyanna kinds of misses her." Fugaku said. Arya had been learning a little too extensively for the past few weeks because Aoto was able to defeat her in arena battle and thus she took it as an insult had been studying like crazy.
"Sorry Fugaku-san. She had been too busy training. I will tell her that Lyanna misses her." Aoto said. Both of them spoke of day to day things but one could see that Fugaku looked a bit tired. Aoto could tell that politics of the clan was getting to him and the massacre of the Uchiha wasn't a much distant away.
Aoto talked with others too while also congratulating Hiashi for his birthday. From the corner of his eye he saw the ones who came from the Kumogakure too. There were five of them and looked quite gentle to be here.
He was talking with and thanked everyone for the fact that they had supported them in this treaty between Konoha and Kumo. The more Aoto looked at him and his colleagues the more his intuition was telling him that Hyuga kidnapping would definitely happen.
The celebration was perfunctory to say the least as the grownups talked about all other things and were cordial. Though there weren't any hatred between any clans, Aoto could tell that their friendships too weren't deep. This made Aoto sigh. Another thing he got to know from the conversations was that the cloud ninjas were invited to stay with them for the night.
After getting out of the small celebration, Aoto called all of his friends in the library.
"So the Hyuga affair will probably happen tonight." Aoto said.
"Sigh. Another politics." Corazon said as he lit up his cigarette.
"I haven't been able to move around a lot. This would be fun." John said as he stretched his arms for a bit.
"Where is Yoruichi-san?"
"She is doing her job for the night." Kisuke said. Everyone nodded as they understood that Yoruichi was in some kind of secret mission. With everyone together, they were at Aoto's home taking rest and getting ready for the night.
This night would be an eventful one and thus they were saving their energy. And as expected, it was around 1.30 am when suddenly a small beep sound came from a small device that was placed in the room. Everyone who had their eyes closed all this time, got up immediately.