Aoto was back at his place. There were some days left before the two villages came for the exam, and thus the village was now actively trying to make itself presentable. Aoto called everyone at night for a meeting after Torune and Naruto went to sleep.
"What's this call for late at night?" Jon asked. These days he had hardly been around and actually went to the Nights Watch to see what was going on. He needed to save himself from the upcoming danger. No matter what, he didn't want to 'die' here.
Arya was following her father, who had gone out of Westeros to see how the dragon girl was. She too was here.
"What's this call for?" Arya asked. Everyone was curious.
"You must have heard about the Chunin Exams," Aoto said, to which many of them nodded. Those who didn't understand were brought up to speed.
"What about it?" Yoruichi asked.
"I have been tasked to be one of the examiners for the exams. And so is Shikuro, Unohana, and Urahara," Aoto said.
"Maa.. maaa.. I am just a shopkeeper, I can't do anything," Kisuke said while Unohana just stayed silent and looked at Aoto. Everyone scoffed hearing his words but didn't speak a word against it.
"Anyways, we are required to be the examiners and should report as ones soon," Aoto said.
"You called us all just for this?" Corazon was confused and asked.
"No. I called you here because there might be an attack on the village," Aoto said. This made everyone from casually sitting around to sitting with their spine straight.
"Say that again?" Shikuro asked as he felt a jolt. An attack on Konoha? This had never happened before.
"You heard me right. There might be an attack, but I am not sure about it," Aoto said.
"How sure are you?" Corazon asked.
"An attack on Konoha is inevitable if you ask me. Be it during the Chunin exams or in the future. I can say that the chance of an attack now is around 40%," Aoto said.
"40% is quite high," Unohana said.
"Then what do you want to do?" Shikuro asked, as he could see that Aoto wasn't that much attached to Konoha, but he hoped that he would try to protect this place.
"Of course, save the place. Urahara will decide our course of action if there is an attack," Aoto directly dumped the workload on Urahara.
"I am not..." Urahara protested, but before he could say more, everyone chimed in and screamed.
"Shut up." This made Urahara shut up pretty fast.
"Since you said there will be an attack. Do you have any idea how the attack will arrive?" Shikuro asked.
"I can only speculate. Maybe Iwagakure and Sunagakure will join hands and attack together, but if they do that, the attack will be flimsy. If Sunagakure attacks by itself, then we'll be in deep trouble if Iwagakure decides to help Konoha. Or it can go bad, and all three villages start a massive brawl, which will ultimately be harmful to Konoha and the business," Aoto said.
"So we have unknown enemies," Corazon said. Aoto just shrugged his shoulders.
"This is going to be a fun exam," Unohana smiled as she got up and left. This left a bitter taste in the mouths of everyone, as one could already guess what Unohana might be thinking. They just hoped she wouldn't go too crazy.
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The next few days went by like a train on boosters. The shops under Aoto were cleaned and decorated. The manga shop was given a renovation as Aoto gave Corazon more manga from his previous world. Romantic manga were in craze now, like "Komi Can't Communicate" and "Kobayashi-san no Maid Dragon."
Thanks to manga and Hans Zimmer, anime production had started and was gaining track. Basically, Konoha was on its way to becoming the next Tokyo with its own Akihabara. It was a slow process and would take years, but it had started to slowly transform.
The bakery shop had also expanded, and Hot Pie actually didn't work much. He had employees under him who would bake for him while he directed. It was like a dream come true for him, and he loved being the boss of his own shop in such a lively place.
As the days went by, Aoto noticed the change in the village. A few unknown shinobi had started showing up wearing bands from two different villages. The locals were a bit apprehensive of them and just stayed away from them as much as possible.
Though there were no major conflicts or even street brawls, one could feel the tension for sure. In these few days, Urahara hadn't been lazy. He and Tessai went around the whole village and put up kido in different places for defense. Of course, this was done sneakily, and the guardians of Konoha never knew what these two were up to.
Even Yoruichi helped them.
But as the preparations were in full swing, there was a guest at Aoto's shop.
Jiraiya.
"Yo... It's been some time since I saw you," Jiraiya asked as he came in. Over the years, he had visited sometimes, but this was the longest he had been out of the village. More than a year had passed since he went away. And now he was back, just in time.
"It's you who had gone missing. I thought something happened to you," Aoto joked.
"I am the Toad Sage. Nothing can happen to me," Jiraiya seemed to get offended and said.
"Many have proclaimed that, and many have lost their lives. Even Hanzo had died, who proclaimed himself to be some kind of immortal, much less us," Aoto said. This made the cheerful Jiraiya shut up. He had read the reports.
He also missed his students. He had tried looking for them, and all he got in return was that they were dead, which almost broke his heart because he loved them.
"Anyways, I can see the commotion around. I am very excited," Jiraiya said.
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