"Don't you already have a peace agreement with the village?" Aoto didn't understand what Onoki wanted from another peace agreement, as they already had one.
"No. This will be different. This one deal will make sure that Konoha and Iwagakure will not disclose any of their secrets to any other village. If the deal is done, the two villages will never cross arms against each other in the event of great ninja wars. This deal will be passed down for the next 100 years," Onoki said.
"Umm... Why are you telling me about the deal? I am not the Hokage. You should be asking him," Aoto said.
"I am not dumb and old enough to not notice that Hiruzen wants you to be the next Hokage," Onoki said. Aoto was speechless. He wanted to refute Onoki's words, but he knew that Onoki was right. Thankfully, it would change soon.
"So I need to take the deal or face the wrath of the old fence sitter?" Aoto asked with narrowed eyes.
"No. I am sure I will not be able to kill you, and the things I have noticed after coming to this village made me realize that we will lose the war and this confrontation if I start it," Onoki said. Aoto looked at the old man with more scrutiny than ever. He knew that this old man was the most treacherous among the current Kage.
Raikage was fueled by nothing but anger and hot-bloodedness, with occasional logical decisions. Kazekage was just easy to manipulate and thought he knew better about everything. Onoki and Hiruzen were the old guards, and they had almost the same way and kind of thinking.
"Old man, you can fool everyone in this world but not me. Tell me what you want. You have been in contact with Akatsuki all this time, and I am sure you know that Orochimaru belonged to that group once. So there is a very high chance that you invited him. Heck, if I take the evidence that I have to Hiruzen, he will destroy you in public opinion here, but public opinion here doesn't matter and only strength matters. So I refuse to believe that you don't know of his plans with Konoha in the coming days. Now tell me what you want," Aoto asked. This made Onoki tremble a bit.
He never thought that Aoto would know with such detail. A month before the Chunin exams started, there had been correspondence between him and the Kazekage where he wanted Onoki's help to bring down Konoha once and for all. He hadn't given any positive response to it, but he was leaning towards the destruction of Konoha.
When Orochimaru was confronted in the forest, he came right away in order to make sure that his name was never on the table and if anything went wrong, their village wouldn't be implicated. He also thought it would be a good way to bring Konoha down. Little did he know that Aoto Yamazaki had known everything from the start, and he was almost sure that Hiruzen knew nothing of it.
Maybe Hiruzen knew and was just playing dumb. What kind of man was Aoto was he still couldn't get the gist of and this mirror dimension too. He was able to tell that this wasn't genjutsu. Though he didn't know why he could tell this but he just knew and felt it.
"I don't want another war between us." Onoki said.
"No. You don't want a war where you know you can't win." Aoto corrected him. Onoki was breathless for a moment. He didn't know how he could refute those words as it was truth.
"Iwagakure will enter into the peace agreement immediately." Onoki could only say that since there was no point of dragging it and insisting on it. Aoto didn't get the answer and he knew that this old man wouldn't break so easily.
"Onoki-san, what you do really wish in your life?" Aoto asked out of nowhere. He moved his hands a bit and summoned two chairs and a table. Onoki was again fascinated by the move but didn't ask. He joined the table and Aoto brought out beer on a huge jug and placed it in front of him.
"It's not poison." Aoto assured Onoki but this didn't make him trust Aoto at all. He didn't touch the beer understandably. But Aoto did take sips from his beer cup. Meanwhile, Onoki was also thinking about what he Aoto had asked. He knew that he couldn't walk out as those questions were just childish but he needed to entertain this man in order to get out the situation and rethink of the strategy.
"I want my village to prosper." Onoki said.
"My village? Don't you mean our village?" Aoto asked.
Onoki was confused and asked. "What is the difference?"
"The difference is that you have a sense of entitlement with the village. You feel that the village owes you something and thus you allowed yourself to go to any lengths to achieve to what you believe as the prosperity of the village. You think if you win the war, it will be your personal achievement and feel a sense of pride. Once upon a time you didn't feel like that. You were humble but now that you are the leader of the village it made you feel that you are better than others and thus know better than your own village." Aoto said.
"You have no idea of what you are talking about you self opinionated prick. I am only entertaining you because we are in the exams together and not because I owe you an explanation." Onoki went into defensive mode once Aoto opened his mind and read him like a book. Onoki himself was in denial of what Aoto said and thus thought he was overestimating his own self.
He wasn't ready to face his own inner demons.
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