Naruto felt betrayed and had to surrender. Only then was he allowed to even breathe. Naruto was bummed that he couldn't greet Aoto, but he could understand where this was coming from. The ones who knew about Aoto and Naruto were a bit surprised, but those who knew belonged to Konoha in the first place, and it was an advantage for them.
"Welcome to the second round of Chunin exams. I am Aoto Yamazaki, born and raised in Konoha itself, and I will be the chief examiner for the second round..." Aoto was about to say more when sand suddenly came from behind and went for the cat that was dozing off on the shoulders. The black cat jumped at the last second and avoided the sand attack.
Aoto turned around and looked at Gaara. He seemed to be losing his sanity once he saw the cat. The last time, the cat mocked him, and now that he was seeing the black cat again, he couldn't hold the hatred in. Kankuro and Temari were trying to hold Gaara down and not antagonize the examiner himself.
The black cat had vanished for now, and thus Gaara seemed to have calmed down, but he didn't look remorseful at all. Aoto felt pity for this guy. All this kid ever wanted in his life was to be loved, but the only thing he returned he got was betrayal and hatred. Only his mother loved him unconditionally, and his uncle. But both of them had left the confines of mortal life.
"We are sorry for our brother's interference. He is a bit unstable, but we are great shinobis. Please allow us to continue." Kankuro and Temari asked for forgiveness on his behalf while Gaara didn't seem to care at all.
He was just glad that the cat had disappeared.
"Shukaku, can you lessen your hatred?" Aoto said.
"Shukaku? Who is Shukaku?" Temari and Kankuro were a bit puzzled, and so was Gaara. But then he felt a pain in his stomach so much so that he collapsed on the floor and spasmed. The pain was coming from the one-tailed beast inside him, and it was almost on a rampage as soon as he heard the word Shukaku.
"Shukaku. I know you can hear me, so just for this once, calm down. I know you like to have fun around. How about after the exam ends, I will play with you?" Aoto said. This made Gaara spasm a lot more, as he was almost hysterical. Kankuro and Temari wanted to scream at the examiner, but he hadn't made any moves.
They couldn't even understand what was happening.
After a minute or so, Gaara calmed down a lot, and he could finally stand. He looked at the examiner with hatred in his eyes and was almost ready to kill him, but for some reason, his chakra and his emotions didn't flare up at all. He was much calmer and didn't feel like he would lose himself. And what amazed himself more was that the black cat returned on the shoulder of Aoto and Gaara, this time too, didn't attack.
Gaara wanted to attack but his chakra felt like it had slogged. He couldn't understand why but he could feel that the one tailed beast wasn't allowing him to attack Aoto or the cat. This had never happened before. Whenever Gaara wanted to go on a rampage, the beast would fuel his desires or whenever he went to deep sleep. But now that he wanted to go on a rampage, the beast refused to help.
This made him curious about Aoto for the first time. He looked at him and the cat for a second and then turned his head. He would get what he wanted. He would only have to wait. Kankuro and Temari were amazed of what just happened, but they were also glad that Gaara had calmed.
Though they didn't understand what had gone down, but they could figure out that Aoto's words had impact on Gaara. Though they were still confused. Who was Shukaku? They had known the life story of Gaara, including the one where he killed his own uncle.
There was no Shukaku ever? So what was Aoto talking about.
"...As I was saying..." Aoto raised his voice once more and wanted to speak when a man appeared behind him. Someone from the Sound village and vomited a kunai from his mouth. The man didn't stab him, rather used his long tongue to deliver him the kunai.
"Fss.. It's my gift to you.." The man said. Aoto turned back and looked at the man who had just appeared. He could recognize the man instantly even though he was in disguise.
Orochimaru.
One of three legendary sanins.
"Thank you.. Now can you fuck off from my face." Aoto said with the same smile that Orochimaru tried to pull. If it was any other person Orochimaru wouldn't have cared a bit but for some reason he felt a bit uneasy when he saw Aoto smile. He had only heard of Aoto of how he was proclaimed as a genius and a great businessman.
Genius because this person had introduced computers and he also got his hand on it. This machine was able to help in his research by a tremendous degree and do calculations that would take him days and it would finish it in seconds. He had also heard and known of the other projects that was going on like mobile phones, cars and such other inventions.
Another reason why he was going attack Konoha was because he was going to kidnap Aoto. Kidnapping Aoto actually took precedence over destruction of Konoha. He wanted Aoto by hook or by crook and the kunai gifted to him had a tracking scent that he would be able to find, in any place of Konoha.
When Aoto smiled at him, Orochimaru felt like this person could see through his secrets. This was a very vague feeling, like an animal instinct and as a shinobi most of the times his instinct were never wrong.
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