Chapter 23: Moving on
The next day, both Okita and his uncle were walking to the restaurant
"So, what work will I do in the restaurant?" Okita asked
"Hmm…first you should do chores, take orders, and serve food in that way you could make yourself familiar with the work and then you could learn to cook"
"Fine" Okita said
"What's with that lazy reply, you don't want to do the other work?"
"I thought I will just do the cooking stuff"
"Kid you can't just run a restaurant with only cooks, there are many other things that require to run a restaurant did you forget all the tips that I gave you last night" Shin said
"Sigh…no uncle I remembered it all I'll do as you said" Okita didn't know why but whenever there's a topic about restaurants his uncle becomes too passionate about it.
As instructed Okita did chores, taking orders, and served food he also chatted with the people who work at the restaurant all of them were friendly many of them recognized Okita as he use to come here to eat when he was 4-5 years old. Amongst all of them two people talked a lot with Okita they were Okura Miyuki and Sakai Kazuo who were the chefs of the restaurant. Miyuki was a beautiful woman with blonde hair and green eyes she was around the same age as Shin.
"So, Okita-Kun Shin told us that you are a genin and you participated in the war but, you are still very young" Miyuki said
"Yeah, but it's nothing special I am just a little bit talented so I graduated early and in war, I did some simple missions near the borders nothing that dangerous" Okita didn't want to tell anything about the war to Miyuki as she is just a normal citizen and a caring woman, she would probably get worried about Okita if she hears what truly has happened.
"Miyuki-san how long have you been working here?" Okita asked trying to change the topic.
"Oh, I have been working here since the start of this restaurant I was amongst the first employees along with Kazuo-san"
"You know I was your uncle's classmate in the ninja academy" Miyuki said
"You were a shinobi?!" Okita was confused his uncle told him that there were no shinobis who work in the restaurant, all of them were civilians.
"Don't get me wrong, I used to study in the academy as my parents were shinobis, they wanted me to become a shinobi too, but I always wanted to become a cook, they died in the second ninja war and I dropped from the academy to pursue my dream" Miyuki said
'How very convenient of them to die' Okita thought in his mind
"So how was uncle when he was a kid?" Okita asked as he was interested in knowing about his uncle's past
"He was a lonely kid who would always keep it to himself and only talk to others when required, I used to sit with him so I always tried to talk to him he used to get annoyed due to that but it was fun seeing him getting annoyed" Miyuki said with a small smile on her face
"All right enough talking about my childhood let's get to work" it was Shin he came to the kitchen and thus heard Miyuki talking to Okita.
"Uncle, what are you doing here?"
"Well, I can cook too, a lot of customers came today so I am here to help, you should also go and get back to work"
"Let it be he was working for a while now let him take a little break" Miyuki said
"He doesn't need a break he'll get more experience from working in this time of rush hour" Shin said
"Don't be so harsh he is just a kid"
"He is a ninja too"
Okita was confused seeing them bickering with each other but when looking closely it felt like they were happily talking to each other also from the time Shin arrived he was helping Miyuki with cooking and their coordination was great so Okita went near Sakai Kazuo the other chef.
"Say, Kazuo-san what is the relationship between my uncle and Miyuki-san?"
"Oh, you noticed it too, honestly I don't know much cause whenever I ask them about it, they always try to avoid my question but I came up with a theory of my own"
"What is it?"
"I think they like each other but they are waiting for the other to make the move first" Kazuo said
'What is this Kaguya-sama: love is war fanfic?' Okita thought
Okita looked at them for a while but inside his mind, he was rooting for his uncle, after all, it was damn time his uncle gets settled Shin has been looking after him since his birth so Okita wanted Shin to be happy.
After that Okita went back to take orders.
"Hello, sir what would you like to order?"
Okita was shocked to see the people he asked for orders.
"You guys…"
"Been a long time Okita"
They were the three best friends of Okita, Nara Isao, Inuzuka Toru, and Hyuga Tatsuya
"It's been a while guys, how you'll are doing?" Okita said he was happy seeing them since his return to the village he wanted to meet them but couldn't as all of them were not in the village.
"Yeah, we were on a mission" Isao said
"I heard about that when I enquired about you guys, so you all graduated and also got on the same team"
"Yeah, but it's nothing special since the war was going on they graduated us early too" Tatsuya said, as he looked at Okita he felt as if Okita had totally changed and it was not just him all the three of them felt the same when talking to him.
"When did you all graduate?" Okita asked
"We became genins two months ago at first they gave us a lot of simple missions but this time they had given us a B-rank mission" Tatsuya replied
"What about you? You were on a 2-year-long mission did they not promote you?" Isao asked
"My case is a little bit special also I took a one-year break from the work"
"We got to know about your teammates, the news was known from my clan as you know the relationship between Nara and Yamanaka also Toru got to know too" Isao said, when he heard about what happened he was worried about Okita, losing his teammates must have been hard on him.
"Yeah, I was not that close to Aika-san but I had met her during clan meetings" Toru said
"Okita if you want to talk about anything you can talk to us" Isao said
"Nah I am fine" no matter what was told in his mind he still blamed himself for his teammate's death but after the spar, with his uncle, he understood that it was time for him to move on.
Even though Okita said that he was fine they knew he was suffering inside but they didn't ask further instead they changed the topic.
"Hey it's been a long time since all of us got together why don't we go out and roam the whole village just like we used to do when we were in the academy" Toru said
"Yeah, why not? Let's do that. What do you say, Okita?" Isao said
"Fine, let's meet here but now let me take your orders aren't you guys hungry?" Okita asked
"Yeah, I am hungry from the start but these bastards told me not to say anything to you as according to them I am an insensitive jerk who does not know what to say to a grieving person" Toru said with an annoyed look
"And now you proved our point idiot" Tatsuya said
"Great to see that you haven't changed much Toru" Okita chuckled as he was finding it odd that since he came Toru didn't talk anything idiotic.
Afterward, Okita went out with his friends. It was a great day for Okita, a relaxing day. It was nice to spend some time with his friends.
It gradually became a routine for him, to go to work in the morning, train with his uncle in the evening, and sometimes go out with his friends. Just like that, one year passed by….
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
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