Kazemori Masaki lifted the curtain and stepped into a small roadside restaurant. The man sitting at the counter turned at the sound and waved. "Hey, Zhenghui! Over here."
"The others aren't here yet?" Kazemori Masaki asked, sitting down beside him.
"Not yet. They probably got held up with other things. You know how it is—Kagami is the Security Force's commander, Koharu heads the Medical Department, En is busy with the Education Department, and Danzo is running around on Anbu business. Of all our fellow students, we're the only two with relatively little on our plates. We don't oversee any particular department; we just offer general advice so we can focus on training our students." The man at the counter was Hiruzen Sarutobi. As he spoke, he poured Kazemori Masaki a cup of sake.
"What about Torifu? He shouldn't have any departments to manage either, should he?" Kazemori Masaki thanked him before asking.
"Ah, he was going to come with me, but something came up with the Yamanaka Clan and the Nara Clan before I left, so he went to deal with it." Hiruzen Sarutobi shrugged. "Torifu is the most senior member of their clan alliance now. He practically plays both mother and father to the other two clans."
The heads of the Nara and Yamanaka clans had fallen in the war, leaving behind very young heirs. As their elder, Torifu Akimichi had to intervene personally whenever disputes arose; only then would everyone accept the outcome.
"That really does sound exhausting." Kazemori Masaki imagined the plump Torifu Akimichi bustling between several children, trying to comfort them, and smiled wryly.
"If Torifu weren't there, I'd have to help out," Hiruzen Sarutobi said. "Our Sarutobi Clan bears witness to the Ino-Shika-Cho alliance. If there's no one to take charge, we have to step