No other reason than that the housing prices were a little too expensive. That's why he could only set up a stall at the morning market, hoping to save up enough money to buy his own store one day. But now, the Hokage had given him another option.
"Hokage-sama, I find this offer very hard to refuse, but I want to know why you would make this 'investment' in me? There are so many other small vendors in the morning market."
Torifu smiled slightly, and there was a look of admiration in his eyes as he looked at Teuchi. "Your ramen tastes very good, and the rest is all just a gut feeling. Perhaps I simply admire you as a person."
Teuchi scratched his head when he heard this. "That's the reason? Hokage-sama, you really are special."
"So, do you accept?"
Teuchi nodded. "I don't think I have a reason to refuse."
Torifu extended his hand. "It's a pleasure working with you. I trust my gut feeling. You'll make a name for yourself in Konoha."
Teuchi thanked Torifu profusely, but at this moment, a customer came up, so he had to go and serve them first. Torifu saw this and left with Minato.
"Big Brother, if you invested in Teuchi, does that mean we can eat at his store in the future?"
Torifu rubbed his full belly. "Of course. I'm just afraid that his business will be too good, and you won't be able to get a seat."
Teuchi's small stall was already showing signs of being popular. If Torifu and Minato hadn't come early, there probably wouldn't have been a seat.
Minato chuckled when he heard this. "It's okay. I have a delivery number. I'll just say that you're the one who wants it, Big Brother, and Teuchi will definitely deliver it."
Torifu turned to look at Minato. When did this kid become so clever? Did he teach him to be bad? But it was also good to have a little bit of cunning, so he wouldn't be fooled by others.
"What do you say? Do you want to go straight to school? Or do you want to go home and rest for a bit?" Minato thought for a moment. "I'll go home first. There's nobody at school right now."
"Alright then. I'll head to the Hokage's office first. You can go back." Then Torifu waved goodbye to Minato and walked towards the office. Everyone who participated in the battle last night was to gather at the office this morning. He hoped he wasn't the last one to arrive. It was too early right now. The guards at the Hokage Building had just changed shifts.
After saying hello, Torifu walked straight into the building and went to the office. As soon as he pushed the door open, he found that the room was already full of people. This startled Torifu. He didn't expect everyone to be so early.
"My apologies, everyone. I'm a little late." The clan heads all shook their heads. They clearly had no complaints about Torifu being late.
"We just got here, too. We were just chatting when you arrived."
Torifu nodded and sat down in his chair. "Everyone worked hard in the battle last night. I hope you all slept well?"
"Very well. It's mainly because we won the battle. If we had lost, we wouldn't have been able to sleep!" Jiraiya's words made everyone laugh, and the atmosphere in the room immediately became relaxed. Then the clan heads also said that they had slept well last night. After some simple small talk, Torifu got straight to the point. "Did any of you have any feelings about the battle last night?"
As soon as Torifu said this, everyone had something to say and began to share their feelings. "I feel that there are definitely even stronger people behind them. Konoha may still not be very safe."
"Their ninjutsu was a little diverse, which was an eye-opener for me."
...Although there were many different opinions for a moment, none of them were the answer that Torifu wanted, until Orochimaru spoke. "I feel that their strength is a little too weak. It's not what Kage-level strength should be." As soon as he said this, all the eyes in the office turned to Orochimaru.
Torifu also clapped his hands. "That's right! That's what I wanted to ask. Did any of you have that feeling?"
Actually, it wasn't just Orochimaru. Everyone had this feeling, but they didn't say it out loud in case people thought they were boasting. But since the Hokage had asked, they naturally couldn't hide it. For a moment, everyone said how easy the battle last night was. The office was a little noisy because of the many voices. Danzō's staff tapped the ground lightly, making a crisp sound.
"Their chakra is indeed Kage-level, but their fighting awareness and mindset are no different from those of an ordinary jōnin. Rather than calling them Kage-level ninjas, it's more appropriate to say that they were forcibly elevated by some secret jutsu or secret medicine."
This sentence immediately hit on Torifu's thoughts. Although the leader's chakra was around mid-Kage level, he had no Kage-level fighting mindset at all. This made it very easy for Torifu to win the battle. But to say that they were forcibly elevated to Kage-level using a secret jutsu or secret medicine was a little hard to say. From what he could see, the various secret jutsus and secret medicines in Konoha could not achieve this.
"The Uchiha clan has a secret medicine that can greatly increase a person's strength for a short period of time, but after the secret medicine wears off, the user's life force will be overdrawn, which will eventually lead to death."
When he heard about this medicine, Torifu immediately thought of Uchiha Kyo. That kid secretly took a forbidden drug and ended up losing his life. But Kagami also said that it only increased their strength for a short time and also overdrawn their life force. Those ninjas didn't look like their life force had been overdrawn at all. They were still full of energy when they were sealed last night. He didn't know how they were doing after a night of torture.
"Jiraiya, go to the interrogation unit and find out what's going on. Then bring their head here."
"Yes!" After receiving the order, Jiraiya immediately turned and left for the interrogation unit. If they could get some valuable information, it wouldn't have been for nothing that they fought late into the night yesterday.
Torifu waved his hand, and countless small stools appeared in the room. "Please sit down, everyone. The room is a little small, so I can't create chairs."
"Thank you, Hokage-sama." The clan heads didn't complain and sat down directly.
Everyone was waiting for Jiraiya's news. Hiruzen spoke. "Hokage-sama, do we need to tell the Kazekage and Tsuchikage about the capture of these mysterious people?"
Torifu waved his hand. "You can tell the Kazekage. After all, we've formed an alliance. As for the Hidden Stone Village, it's up to you. You can tell them if you want, or you can not tell them." Sarutobi Hiruzen cupped his hands, signaling that he had received the order.
Everyone didn't wait long before Jiraiya rushed in with the head of the interrogation unit.
"Hokage-sama! Something's very wrong!" When Torifu heard this, his heart skipped a beat, but he still calmed down and asked.
"What's wrong? What's the problem?"