The Shopkeeper of Konoha

"I am home," Naruto shouted as soon as he entered through the door, followed by Kakashi and the rest. It was the first time for Sakura, but the rest had been here before. Sasuke had come here with his brother and even once with his father.

He remembered that Aoto was very welcoming to them, but after the massacre, he stopped coming here. Aoto was close to Itachi, and maybe he had an inherent distaste for Aoto since he was a friend of his brother. But he had also forgotten how Aoto was a great friend of his father too and how he used to take care of his sister.

He hated his brother more for killing Lyanna. He loved his sister very much and was very protective of her. And now she was gone, and Sasuke could never get over it. He was more determined to find his brother and kill him with his own hands. Now that he was here again, he felt a bit embarrassed.

It wasn't right for him to hold a silly grudge against Aoto since he himself trusted his brother, including his own parents. How could an outsider know what was actually going on?

"Ah, Naruto... You passed the test... Come in. Oh, you brought Kakashi-san too," Aoto said as he came out wearing a kitchen apron. Sasuke, after seeing eye to eye with Aoto, hung his head, while Sakura bowed down and introduced herself.

"Yo," Kakashi said.

"Welcome. Good that you are here. I have made hot pots. Don't worry, Sasuke, I made many onigiri for you too," Aoto said. This made Sasuke all red in shame and could only nod his head. They all ushered in and were also joined by the rest like Corazon, Torune who had also passed the test, Shuikuro, and even Jon and Arya.

Jon and Arya had been helping the Uchihas a bit and also their parents, but they would still come for the food. Sasuke was a bit overwhelmed when he met so many people of the 'family' of Aoto, so he had put up a good face, and Sakura was surprised that someone like Naruto, whom she had heard rumors about, would have such a big family.

She felt a bit ashamed of her thoughts before and made her realize that it was her family and the thoughts that were backward. She was glad that she didn't speak her mind before and lashed out at Naruto in a very wrong way.

Everyone was cheerful. Yorichi came and even sat on the lap of Sasuke, which he had missed a lot. He even whispered sorry to Yorichi because they used to hang out a lot but had cut short since the fall of the Uchiha. Sasuke loved the onigiri, and Sakura loved all the sweet things served to her, and of course, no one could ignore the hot pot.

They loved it, and Aoto really brought his A-game here to serve and made everyone happy. Edward and Winry were interested in this team thing and asked Kakashi a lot while Corazon talked about the new manga that would hit the sales soon.

Kakashi, being the sucker he was, was already drooling over the new manga. Sometimes, Aoto felt that Kakashi was spending too much on manga.

"So what kind of mission will be given to you?" Aoto asked.

"At the moment, they are new and can only take up D-class missions. After completing a certain amount, they would be given higher-level missions," Kakashi said.

"What? I thought we would be given A-class missions. Why should we take such low-level missions?" Naruto was furious and shouted.

"You are the lowest of the low ranks at the moment, and you expect to get higher-level missions?" Shikuro asked, which infuriated Naruto more.

"They can't do this to us. I will talk with Hokage-sama about this," Naruto said. Everyone just sighed and didn't bother to talk about the level of missions with Naruto since he somehow felt entitled to higher-level missions for which he wasn't eligible.

After the small gathering, everyone left except for Naruto and Aoto, who were cleaning the kitchen and the room where they ate. Of course, Aoto asked how he passed the test, and Naruto reiterated. Aoto wasn't that surprised because he had given him the hint of teamwork.

Aoto would have been severely disappointed if he had found out that Naruto was tied to the pole like in the original story. Though their strategy wasn't rocket science, at least they tried, and that was enough.

The next day, Naruto woke up early with an excited fervor and thirst for the new life ahead. After all, he would start his missions, and he would be called a genin. His dream of being a Hokage and Sorcerer Supreme started from here.

After having his breakfast, he ran like a bat out of hell, and Aoto had to tell him to calm down. After he left, Aoto murmured.

"Doesn't he know that Kakashi will be late and he will have to wait at the office until he arrives?"

As expected, Kakashi was late, but eventually, they went for the first task, which was to find a cat that a rich lady had lost. Honestly, what was up with the lady and her obsession with the cat? The cat hated her, and she should have understood that by now.

And similar to that, there were multiple low-level missions around Konoha, which were D levels. Normally, Naruto would be grumpy all around and come back huffing and puffing, but something happened that put a smile on his face.

For the first time ever, the celestial magic section had opened for Naruto. This was enough to bring him joy, and he ran towards it to learn. And for the first time, Aoto was jealous of his own brother. He didn't have access yet, as he had only reached a high-level talent.

But it was a huge matter in the library as someone finally had access to the celestial magic. And from the looks of Naruto, one could easily tell that he was beyond surprised.